Chimp Tracking in Tanzania
There are a couple of places in Tanzania that offer oustanding chimpanzee tracking. Both of these places lie on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. As is often the case, it is the least known that offers by far the richest experience.
Gombe in the north where Jane Goodall performed her groundbreaking studies, is a small park, beautiful, but surrounded by encroaching humanity on all sides. 100 miles to the south the much larger and lesser-known Mahale Mountains are home to The Tongwe People and several hundred wild chimpanzees and are literally breathtaking.
Chimp tracking is quite unlike any of the more traditional elements of safari. Here you are on your feet throughout and in awe inspiring forest that bares no resemblance to anything you will have encountered elsewhere in the country. When you find the chimps you are often in close proximity to them (sometimes they pass within a few feet of you) and they more or less ignore you.
Consequently you are in a remarkable position to observe the extraordinarily complex behaviour patterns and social interactions. In both Mahale and Gombe, individual animals are well known and their characters and relationships well documented so there is a very high level of intimacy, which is very rare in game viewing of any kind.
There is a significant element of the behavioural repertoire, which is (at first) puzzlingly familiar – nose picking and various facial gestures particularly, which candidly point a hairy finger at our own origins and make you wonder why it took Mr Darwin so long to work out his theory.
In both parks there is a group of habituated chimps, but in Mahale, where the University of Kyoto has studied the animals (“M” Group) since the sixties, there has been none of the controversial human interaction that took place in Gombe.
Finding the chimps is largely a matter of luck as they can theoretically be anywhere from the top of the 8000 ft mountains to the lakeshore at 2500 ft. However, the trackers know the animals well and are nearly always in touch with their movements day to day.
The length of walk can vary enormously – they are sometimes literally at the back of the camp and other days they are nowhere to be seen – but on average you should expect to walk for about 2 –3 hours on well-defined paths in the forest.
In the last few years, chimp sightings in Mahale have been excellent with only a very small number of people not finding the animals and generally the trackers will continue until they find the animals or you have had enough.
More articles that you might find helpful
When's the best time to visit Mahale?
Tanzania visa requirements
The Tongwe Trust
Mobile Tented Safaris
Night drives in Zambia
For videos, articles, ideas and news from Africa:
Have a look at our blog at safarigeek.com
1747 898 104Do you need some help with this?
At Natural High, we've all lived and worked in Africa, so our knowledge is born of
hands-on experience rather than simply visiting on holiday. We can't over-stress how
worthwhile it is to take a few minutes to call us. We're not in the business churning
out thousands of packages so if you'd like to discuss things in detail, take a few
minutes and call Catherine, Fiona, Vanessa or Alex on 1747 898104.close
