Inside Africa’s chimp capital

A chimpanzee rests on a log in Kibale National Park. The park is host to Africa’s largest population of the endangered primates. Photo by Matthias Mugisha

Kibale National Park, the chimpanzee capital of Uganda, lies about 320km from Kampala, the capital city. The park has the highest diversity and density of primates in Africa. It is home to a record 1,450 chimpanzees, the largest population in Uganda of this endangered primate.

The park is also home to about 70 mammal species and 13 species of primates of which the chimpanzee is the top dog.

The tropical forest that covers Kibale is also home to East Africa’s largest population of the threatened red colobus and the rare i’hoest’s monkey. Other primates include the black-and-white colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabey, olive baboon, bush baby and potto. Kibaale hosts eight species of primates.

The park has an estimated 500 elephants, buffalos, leopards, warthogs, bush pigs, golden cats and duikers, bushbucks, mongooses and a colourful variety of 250 species of butterflies.

When it comes to birds, the park is host to more than 375 species. Outside the park, the rich biodiversity and beautiful scenery of Bogodi wetland is a birder’s paradise with about 138 species of birds.

The sanctuary was set up to preserve the exclusive environmental features along with the wetland that is managed by the local Bigodi community whose women use the natural resources from the swamp to make crafts.

Another area of interest is Kihingami Wetland in northern Kibale where a community-run birding project compliments visits a tea estate and factory. Here, nature also brings visitors to close up encounters with primates such as the black-and-white colobus, red colobus and red-tailed monkeys.

Despite the park’s many attractions, chimpanzee tracking is the park’s hottest selling item.
Chimps are the closest human cousins.

They are intelligent. They share about 98.7 per cent of their DNA with man though they are about seven times stronger than humans. Chimps can pick up both maths and language and have been known to learn numbers from one to nine.

The human aspect
Female chimps have a gestation period of eight months. A baby chimpanzee weighs about 2kg. Baby chimps ride on their mothers’ backs for up to 4.5 years.

Female chimpanzees usually give birth to their first offspring between the ages of 11 and 23 years depending on their geographical location. Though male chimps start their intimate interactions with females at a young age, they probably won’t be fathers until they become “real men” at 15.

Young females always leave their family after attaining sexual maturity and get “married” into other unrelated communities to avoid in-breeding.

Chimpanzees are omnivorous-frugivorous but prefer fruits. Their menu includes other foods such as leaves, leaf buds seeds, blossoms, stems, pith, bark and honey. On the meaty side, they devour birds and their eggs, monkeys, duikers, bushbucks and warthogs. The oldest chimpanzees in the wild died at 63 years of age while the oldest in captivity lived up to 72.

Chimp Mating game
When a female chimp is on heat, the skin around her genitals becomes pink and swollen in what is known as oestrous. If the desired male is slow to react, the female will put her swollen bottom right up in his face. When a male wants sex, he shakes a tree branch or displays his erect penis to a female. Alternatively, he will shower the female with gifts such as fruits or meat. Female chimps have multiple partners, which means that male chimps need to produce as much sperm as possible to give themselves the best chance of fathering offspring in their never ending ‘sperm war’.