Great primate safari in Uganda

We just returned from a great primate trip to Uganda. our trip took us to some of the key places of interest as below, with the highlight being a great experience watching and photographing the big apes. We started our trip in Entebbe then Kibale forest, Queen Elizabeth, then Bwindi forest. Although our main goal was the big apes, we also enjoyed general game as well as the people we met or interacted along the way. Below is a short info about the places we went. I have also attached some photos of the big apes from the trip

Kibale Forest

Kibale National Park contains one of the loveliest and most varied tracts of tropical forest in Uganda. Forest cover, interspersed with patches of grassland and swamp, dominates the northern and central parts of the park on an elevated plateau.

The park is home to a total of 70 mammal species, most famously 13 species of primate including the chimpanzee.

Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary

Rich in biodiversity and beautiful scenery, the wetland is a birder’s paradise with about 138 species. Located outside the park in Magombe Swamp it also hosts eight species of primates including the black-and-white colobus, grey-cheeked mangabey, red-tailed, l’Hoest’s and blue monkeys, and olive baboons. Bushbucks and mongooses can also be found here. The sanctuary was set up to preserve the exclusive environmental features along with the wetland and is managed by the local community.

The Kazinga channel

The Kazinga Channel is an oasis for many of the fascinating species that inhabit the park, and taking a boat tour along it gives visitors the chance to cruise just meters from hundreds of enormous hippos and buffalos while elephants linger on the shoreline.

An average of 60 bird species can be spotted during the trip.

Bwindi Impenetrable forest

This is the home of the gorillas. The park is inhabited by a population of about 340 individuals of Mountain Gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), commonly referred to as the Bwindi population, which makes up almost half of all the mountain gorillas remaining in the world. The rest of the worldwide mountain gorilla population is in the nearby Virunga Mountains which is shared by Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The major threat to these mountain gorillas is poaching, habitat loss and disease, however, since 1997; there has been a gradual increase in the mountain gorilla population in Bwindi. Your visit here is incomplete until you partake in community tour, which is an experience that gives you an insight into real Uganda life.

Below are photographic highlights from the trip