Uganda is rich in what we call primates including the Mountain gorillas and chimpanzees which are among the great primates in the world. These primates call some of Uganda’s protected areas home and visitors come to this country to witness them in their natural environment.
Mountain gorillas in Uganda are found in two great national parks, Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga National Park. Well as Chimpanzees are found quite in many protected areas some of them are Kibale National Park, Budongo forest reserve, Kalinzu forest, Ngamba island, and kyambura gorge.
Besides primates, Uganda is rich in other attractions like animals, birds, vegetation, culture, water bodies like lakes and rivers and many others. There are different activities which can be done in protected areas to explore the attractions.
What to see in primates destinations of Uganda
Bwindi national park.
This is known to be home to mountain gorillas. Almost half of these endangered creatures can be found here. The park is big divided into sections or entrances, Buhoma which was the first one, Ruhija, Rushaga, and Nkuringo, each of the mentioned sections has its gorilla families to explore. Tracking is done daily in Bwindi and each gorilla family is supposed to receive 8 visitors per day. Besides gorilla tracking, there are other activities in Bwindi.
Nature walks: Nature walks in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest are so rewarding, there are those which are shorter and those which are long. Examples of nature walks include Buhoma Nkuringo trail, Rushura Hill walk, the Habinyanja trail and many more. Visitors on this activity appreciate Bwindi’s vegetation, other primates like different types of monkeys and many more. Visitors need to have good walking shoes, water rainy jackets and many more.
Birding: Bwindi is rich in birds where by its about 357 birds species are recorded here and some are Albertine rift endemics. This is a perfect place for birding and guides are available to give more information as the activity goes on.
Community encounter: There are local communities around Bwindi some of the tribes around Bwindi include, Batwa and Bakiga. Spending some time with them is a rewarding moment and it’s one of sustainability measure.
Mgahinga National Park:
This park is located in western Uganda near the border of Uganda and Rwanda. It is also a home to the endangered species called mountain gorillas. Gorillas are the same in Bwindi and Mgahinga and some visitors do gorilla tracking in Bwindi and others in Mgahinga. Besides gorilla tracking, this park has more attractions to offer which can be seen in these activities below
Golden Monkey Tracking: These are also primates and they are endangered rarely seen elsewhere except in Virungas. They are unique due to their golden color. They live in troops, led by the Alpha male. Golden monkey tracking is one of the reasons why visitors stay longer in Mgahinga National Park.
Nature walks: Nature walks are conducted into Mgahinga National Park. The activity is done in the morning where visitors are led by the park guides in the park. Different attractions will be seen like. There is sabyinyo gorge walk which is so rewarding
Volcano hike: Mgahinga national park is made up of 3 volcanoes, Gahinga, Sabyinyo and Muhabura. The most popular volcano to hike is sabyinyo. These volcanoes have attractions as you hike and also at the top.
Batwa Experience: The Batwa people were the indigenous people in Mgahinga forest before they were evicted to form mgahinga National Park. The Batwa guide will lead visitors into the forest and show how they used to stay in the forest, they will show different techniques like how they used to start fire, the Garama cave where they used to hide in case of a problem. And many more. The walk will be concluded with meaningful songs and dance.
Kibale national park
Kibale National Park is among the great parks of Uganda protecting the moist evergreen rain forest, it’s also containing a diverse array of landscapes. The forest both has low land and montane forest. The park is known to be home to the great primate the Chimpanzees. Many activities related to these attractions are conducted daily into this park like Chimpanzee tracking and chimpanzee habituation. For tracking, after finding the chimps, visitors are supposed to spend 1 hour with the primates well as chimpanzee habituation, more hours are spent with the chimps.
Besides the above activities, the park has more activities to offer like birding, Community encounter, Nature walks and many others.
