Tracking Chimpanzees in Kibale, Uganda
The jungle is surprisingly quiet. The only sound is the patter of raindrops falling from a height through the canopy onto the ground far below. Even our footsteps on the soft ground don’t make a sound. Then off in the distance comes a shriek. It’s the noise we’ve been searching for, the sound of a chimpanzee calling! Our guide holds up her hand to tell us to wait as she listens over her radio. “They’re coming this way”, she whispers to us.
We wait for a few seconds, and then, the jungle comes to life! Like a scene from “Planet of the Apes” the bushes in front of us erupt as two male chimpanzees rush out towards us and run past us shrieking at us! The tree tops shake and reverberate with the calls and cries of the rest of the group making their way through the canopy over our heads. As we stand in awe at the sight and sounds we have just witnessed, we realize we have to follow them so as not to lose sight of them! This is true nature! This is the ecstasy of tracking chimpanzees in Kibale, Uganda!
Before the Tracking
With an early start in the morning, you make your way to the park. After being checked in by your guide, you go to the briefing room. After a short time, one of the rangers comes along and you get a run down on what to do and what not to do when you encounter the chimps. This includes not eating in front of them, and not imitating them as you never know what you might be saying to them in their language! You are also told that there is always a possibility you will not find them. Or they might be high up in the trees avoiding the group. Fortunately the chances of seeing them are very high so hopefully this situation won’t occur to you.
After your briefing, you are then split up into groups of about 6 people, each with a guide. The guide carries a rifle, which is only to scare away forest elephants in the event they decide to make an appearance. These creatures are a bit aggressive so it is just a safety check. You are also told not to worry in case you hear gunshots as these will be from another ranger just scaring them away too.
After making sure all of your exposed skin is covered with insect repellent, and your trousers are tucked into your hiking boots, (which we learned is to prevent fire ants from entering your boots), you set off on your way into the forest.
Into the forest
The forest is covered with paths and tracks so is not hard to navigate through. There is no real clambering over rocks or fallen trees and the journey is easy even for people not used to hiking or walking. You may find that you have to go back on your tracks the odd time as the guide will have got other information about the chimpanzee groups from another guide, but this isn’t a problem.
It’s advisable to watch the ground as sometimes you will find a trail of ants making their way across the path. So you will need to try to avoid them as you don’t want them ending up in your boots! Sometimes you will come across signs of the forest elephants. Maybe a footprint, or the remains of a meal they have digested!
Walking through the forest is beautiful, the smell of the rain on the leaves, the sounds around you while at the same time feeling amazingly silent. With no sounds of phones, or modern technology anywhere, it’s a real feeling of being immersed in nature.
Tracking the Chimpanzees
The chimpanzees themselves do not have advance trackers. This means that when you are setting out in the morning to find them the guides are in the dark as to their whereabouts as much as you are. The only additional information they have is their last known location, and potential feeding and resting grounds. This of course is vital. As if they cannot be found in the close vicinity they know where they might have disappeared to.
The guides keep in contact with each other over radio. So if one hears a call or sees evidence of the chimpanzees, they will tell the rest. Often you will hear a shriek off in the distance, and all heads turn in that direction trying to pinpoint where it came from. As you make your way in the direction you think it was, another one comes from another direction. It’s a choice of keeping going in the initial direction, or change.
As the calls get closer, the excitement builds up. Soon you start to think every movement in the tree tops is a chimp! Sometimes you will be right, and you may see one or two sitting up very high in the canopy. But not close enough to satisfy your thirst for chimp spotting!
Contact!
But when it does get satisfied, when they start to flood towards you in a tide of black hair, cutting the air with their shrieks, and showing their strength by beating the tree trunks, nothing can prepare you for it! Your first thoughts are to stand still, as they run past you and towards one of the trees close by. As they climb up at lightning speed, you realize that you need to stay with them, otherwise they will disappear again.
Waiting below the trees, watching them, you can’t help think of all those Tarzan movies from years ago. You wonder also how anybody could keep an animal like this locked up or as a pet. The freedom they have in this forest, where they are in charge, and they know it, cannot be taken away. This is their true home, and this is where they should always remain.
Watching the Chimpanzees
When they do decide to venture from the tree tops and come back to the ground, you may be one of the lucky few that they will just walk past. Now that they have seen that you are not a threat to them, they will slowly walk past and look up at you. As your eyes make contact, you can see the intelligence in them, there is thinking going on behind those eyes. What are they thinking? Are they thinking “who are these intruders in my forest”? Or are they thinking about showing us the way to the nearest food source?
They wander off, some on the ground, the others going through the tree tops, calling as they go. Our guides tell us they are calling to us, showing us where to go, to follow them to the food. We quickly follow them and find them again in another bunch of trees, happily eating and climbing around. Moving from tree to tree with a simplicity that no human can ever do. Occasionally throwing something down to us. Whether it is for us to eat, or the fact that they are just messing around with us we don’t know. And we don’t care, we have got what we came for, and we are happy.
Goodbye to the Chimps
After watching them for an hour, our guide breaks the news to us that it is time to go back. Leaving these beautiful creatures behind is hard. It’s a rare thing to see them in the wild, without bars and without restrictions. Where they can come right up to you, and if they want to they can damage you severely. But they just go on about their business. They know you’re there but they also know that they are in charge. A gentle creature, and an intelligent creature, and one which we will always remember our first wild encounter with.
From the moment we heard the first call, when we knew that they were somewhere about, to the time we leave them, they gave us a feeling that is not easy to put into words. A feeling of awe, of joy, of respect. And a feeling of sadness, of how in places they do not have the freedom they have here in this forest, their home.
As we walk away, they are still calling to us, but it is time for us to leave. It’s time to leave them in peace and hope that anyone else who encounters them will do the exact same.
How to go about Tracking chimpanzees
The permit for tracking the chimpanzees costs around $150 and can be obtained from the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority). Alternatively, just before Kibale, there is an office and you can get the permits from this. It’s best to get them at least a day beforehand so you know you will have a space.
However, the easiest option is to include it as part of a tour package which is what we did. All the permits are looked after by the tour operator. We used Xavier’s Safari Memories and he ensured that everything was fully prepared so there were no issues once we got there. He also advised us on what to bring the evening before and that we had everything in the morning before leaving. It’s good to note that if you have a contagious illness you will not be allowed to track the chimps as it can be transferred to them. Also the age limit for tracking is 12 years and above.
For contact details for Xavier please contact us through our ‘Contact Us’ page link.