It is still very dark and cold in Fort Portal when I leave for my excursion. Wrapped in multiple jackets, I am heading to Kibale National Park, the place in East Africa with the highest density of free living chimpanzees.
The park is located in Western Uganda, just half an hour drive from the pleasant town of Fort Portal. Fort Portal is not only close to Kibale, it is also close to other attractions like Queen Elizabeth National Park and the famous Rwenzori Mountains, named ‘Mountains of the Moon’, one of the many natural wonders of Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa”.
The drive to the park is short. A little bit too short for my taste. During the drive on the recently completed Kamwenge Road (leading south to Mbarara), I enjoy the breathtaking landscape. While the mist is wafting over the green valleys, the sun is rising behind the hills and the first rays of dawn are slowly breaking through. Because of this amazing view alone, it was worth getting up so early.
After sunrise I could gain a first impression of the National Park. With a size of over 795 square kilometres, the forest is home to 13 different primate species. Over 1400 chimpanzees and 300 different species of birds live here - a real paradise of mother nature.
The first family of baboons playing on the tarmac road mark the point of where we enter the deep green canopy of tropical rain forest and the realm of its inhabitants. Shortly, we are at the Kanyanchu Visitors Centre of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), and together with other tourists I receive a brief introduction from UWA-Rangers on how to act within this fragile eco-system: for example, nobody is allowed to leave any rubbish in the park and everybody should be aware of the 8 meter safety distance to the chimps. After that, all people participating in the Chimp Tracking are split up into small groups, each accompanied by a park ranger.
Then we drive deeper into the forest, until we officially begin the tracking on our own feet. As soon as we leave the small muddy path, the forest is welcoming us into its heart. Insects are chirping, baboons are fighting and the elephant dung smells rough and strong. Every rustle of a leaf is sharpening our attention. It could be a chimpanzee or one of the rare forest elephants!
Again and again, we find fermented remains of the Amarula fruit. The ranger explains that the forest elephants love these fruits because they make them drunk. But drunk elephants are also the biggest danger in the forest and the reason why each park ranger is carrying a weapon to scare them away if necessary.
After an hour of tracking, we finally see our first chimpanzee. He is relaxing comfortably on a big fallen tree. We are able to get very close to him - only a few meters are separating us. But the human’s closest relative is ignoring us completely. That’s not a miracle at all. The chimps have been slowly habituated by scientists and UWA park rangers over the years, so they are now used to humans. If it were different, the chimps would flee, or worse, even be ready to attack.
Step by step, we move around the tree while the chimp continues his little nap. We are lucky: right behind the tree are three more chimps. Seems like they have been waiting for us! After a while, other tracking groups arrive and everybody is carefully watching the chimps while collecting material for their next Instagram story. The noisy sounds of clicking cameras are only drowned by the loud and living forest itself.
Suddenly a huge chimpanzee roar is echoing through the forest. It is repeated by chimps from all directions. Now I realize that there are not only three chimps in front of me: I am surrounded by many. The three in front of me are yelling at their brothers and sisters in return, before calmly continuing to removing insects out of each other’s fur.
A little later, a park ranger warns us that the former alpha male Magezi is on his way. Like a storm, he passes us very fast, rushing to his three colleagues. They show him submissive respect for a brief moment, and then continue grooming each other. The former alpha male is different from his brothers, having more muscles and appearing much younger. In comparison to him, his brothers seem to be very old with grey hair and old minor injuries. One of them has a crippled hand, probably caused by a hunter’s trap. The park rangers cannot know this for sure, since they only found the injured chimpanzee when they officially opened the park in 1993.
On the way back, we meet several more chimps, but again only males. The ranger explains that the female chimps have moved deeper into the forest to protect their babies.
Further in the forest, we can hear the trumpeting of drunk elephants, and sounds of knocking and banging reverberate through the trees. “These are chimpanzees beating against the trees to communicate with others,” the park ranger tells us.
I’m thinking it’s a pity that we didn’t see one of the drunk forest elephants. Others might call it luck!
Raising awareness that nature is worth protecting is a key element in the work of the park rangers. This goal not only forms their interactions with tourists, but is also an essential part of their work with the surrounding communities to gain their co-operation. The communities need to understand and appreciate the value the forest for Uganda and themselves. To increase their support, workers and rangers are primarily recruited from the local people in and around the forest. The same people are also responsible for carrying their knowledge back to their communities in order to help them to understand why poaching animals and cutting down trees is prohibited inside the park.
Communities closest to the National Park benefit most from the revenues, in particular from park entry fees. In all National Parks of Uganda, 20% of the income generated flow back to the communities surrounding them. At Kibale this money is invested, for example, in new classrooms and sanitation for schools. With this in mind, 150$ for the chimp permit is money well spent. The current situation is a win-win all around: it allows the visitors to enjoy an unforgettable experience and the locals (chimps included!) to benefit from it too.