Kibale National Park – Home of Chimpanzees
About 320 kilometres to the west of Kampala lies Kibale National Park, 795km sq in size with an elevated plateau that has forest cover, dispersed with patches of grassland and swamp in the central and north of the park, while the rest of the park has the most magnificent of Uganda’s tropical rain forest.
Kibale is the highest at the park’s Northern tip, 1,590 metres above sea level. Kibale National Park lies close to the serene Ndali – Kasenda crater area. It is also within half days’ drive of Queen Elizabeth national park, Rwenzori Mountains national park and Semuliki National Park. It boasts of having one of the highest concentration and diversity of primates in Africa.
Kibale National Park has various adventurous activities that include;
- Birding with over 138 species that maybe seen during the guided walks along the boardwalk trail and viewing platforms
- Chimpanzee tracking and habituation
- Cultural encounters
- Mountain Hiking / Climbing
- Nature walks through about 351 species of trees some of them being over 55 metres tall and about 200 years old.
Kibale National Park also has a 180km long corridor that adjoins Kibale to Queen Elizabeth National Park between Ishasha, the remote southern part of Queen Elizabeth National Park and Sebitoli in the north of Kibale National Park. The park’s population of elephants and other wildlife majestically cross from one park to another through this corridor.
Kibale Forest National Park also harbours various endangered chimpanzees, red colobus monkeys and the rare L’ Hoests’ monkey that are considered vulnerable. With a variety of bird species that include 4 wild fellids, western green tinker bird, Olive long tailed cuckoo, two species of pittas (African and green-breasted) African grey parrot for the bird lovers.
The carnivores in Kibale Forest National Park include leopards, African golden cats, servals, different mongooses and two species of otter. Lions visit the park occasionally.
The vegetation in the Kibale National Park is mid altitude, moist ever green in the North, gradually decreasing in elevation to moist semi-deciduous in the south, as mixture of deciduous and ever greens in the central parts.