Gombe Stream National Park
An excited whoop erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a
dozen other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied
shrieking crescendo.
It is the famous ‘pant-hoot’ call: a bonding ritual that
allows the participants to identify each other through their individual vocal
stylisations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of
Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent
visual contact with man’s closest genetic relative: the chimpanzee.
Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks: a fragile strip of
chimpanzee habitat straddling the steep slopes and river valleys that hem in
the sandy northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its chimpanzees – habituated to
human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who
in 1960 founded a behavioural research program that now stands as the
longest-running study of its kind in the world. The matriarch Fifi, the last
surviving member of the original community, only three-years old when Goodall
first set foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen by visitors.
Chimpanzees share about 98% of their genes with humans, and no scientific
expertise is required to distinguish between the individual repertoires of
pants, hoots and screams that define the celebrities, the powerbrokers, and the
supporting characters. Perhaps you will see a flicker of understanding when you
look into a chimp's eyes, assessing you in return - a look of apparent
recognition across the narrowest of species barriers.
The most visible of Gombe’s other mammals are also primates. A troop of
beachcomber olive baboons, under study since the 1960s, is exceptionally
habituated, while red-tailed and red colobus monkeys - the latter regularly
hunted by chimps – stick to the forest canopy.
The park’s 200-odd bird species range from the iconic fish eagle to the
jewel-like Peter’s twinspots that hop tamely around the visitors’ centre.
After dusk, a dazzling night sky is complemented by the lanterns of hundreds
of small wooden boats, bobbing on the lake like a sprawling city.
About Gombe Stream National Park
Size: 52 sq km (20 sq miles), Tanzania's smallest park.
Location: 16 km (10 miles) north of Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in
western Tanzania.
Getting there;
Kigoma is connected to Dar and Arusha by scheduled flights, to Dar and Mwanza
by a slow rail service, to Mwanza, Dar and Mbeya by rough dirt roads, and to
Mpulungu in Zambia by a weekly ferry.
From Kigoma, local lake-taxis take up to three hours to reach Gombe, or
motorboats can be chartered, taking less than one hour.
What to do
Chimpanzee trekking; hiking, swimming and snorkelling;
visit the site of Henry Stanley's famous “Dr Livingstone I presume” at Ujiji
near Kigoma, and watch the renowned dhow builders at work. .
When to go
The chimps don't roam as far in the wet season (February-June, November-mid
December) so may be easier to find;
better picture opportunities in the dry (July-October and late December).
Accommodation
1 new luxury tented lodge, as well a self-catering hostel, guest house and
campsites on the lakeshore.
NOTE
Strict rules are in place to safeguard you and the chimps. Allow at least 2
days to see them - this is not a zoo so there are no guarantees where they'll
be each day.
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