Kibale Forest National Park
Kibale Forest National Park
Kibale forest national park is located in the southern part of Uganda in the districts of Kabarole and Kamwenge, protected by moist evergreen rainforest. The park is about 766 km in size and stands at an altitude of 1,590 meters above sea level. Kibale Forest National Park was gazetted in 1993 to protect a large area of forest previously as a logged forest reserve. It contains a diverse array of landscapes with the most beautiful and varying tracts of tropical forest. The forest covering predominates in the central and northern part of the park on the raised Fort portal plateau.
Kibale Forest National park has the highest diversity and concentration of primates in East Africa with 13 species of primates with the endangered chimpanzees being the largest in number and most visited. Other central African monkeys include; Red Colobus monkeys, black and White Colobus, Red tailed monkey to mention a few. The park is also a home to 138 species of birds, 250 tree species and 60 species of forest wildlife including forest elephants, bushbucks, warthogs, giant forest hogs and buffaloes. The park’s main tourist activities include; Chimpanzee trekking and habituation, nature walks at Bigodi wetland, hiking and bird watching. In East Africa, Kibale forest has the highest chances of viewing the wild chimpanzees compared to any other primates’ national park.
Kibale forest has a range of accommodations from High-end, luxury, mid-range to budget accommodations, some of the high-end lodges include, Kyaninga lodge and Ndali lodge, luxury lodges include Crater Safari lodge, Primates lodge to mention a few, mid-range lodge include; Chimpanzee Guesthouse, Kibale Guest cottages, Kibale forest Camp to mention a few, budget accommodations include; Isunga lodge, Rwebere lodge to mention a few.
The park can only be accessed by road from Kampala through Mityana-Mubende road taking about 4 to 5 hours’ drive and it adjoins Queen Elizabeth National park in the south and Semliki national park in the north. There is no airstrip close to the park except of one wish to land in Kasese which is another 2-3 hours’ drive to Fort portal town to connect to the park