GOMBE STREAM NATIONAL PARK

Gombe Stream National Park is located in the westernmost region of Tanzania along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The national park encompasses an area of 14 square miles (35sq km) making it the smallest national park in Tanzania as well as most of Africa.

The park is comprised of grasslands, woodlands, steep valleys, and tropical rainforest. The diversity is surprising for such a small region. The area where the monkeys and primates are found is dense jungle, which some may describe as a true Tarzan-like setting.

Gombe Stream National Park is renowned as the location where the scientific research and work of Jane Goodall with Chimpanzees and other primates. Jane Goodall began her studies in the area in 1960 and her work and observations are well documented and incredibly valuable to understanding primates and their behaviors and communications.

Chimpanzees are probably considered the pinnacle attraction in the park, however, there are other primates calling the area home. Other primates include blue monkeys, olive baboons, red colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and vervet monkeys. This is one of the highest concentrations of primates in Africa.

WHY GOMBE NATIONAL PARK?

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.
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.
There are around 200 species of birds for the birdwatching to pursue. Some of the other wildlife include bush pigs, hippopotami, various snakes, small antelope, and leopards. Leopards are one of the key predators of the chimpanzee and their cousin monkeys.
It is permitted to walk unguided in the immediate vicinity of camp, with a good chance of seeing baboons on the lakeshore and birds in the surrounding fores

WHEN TO GO?

Trekking chimpanzees in Gombe National Park can be done throughout the year, but the odds of finding them quickly is better towards the end of the Dry season, from July to October. This is when the chimps tend to stick to the lower slopes. In the Wet season, it might take three to four hours to locate the chimps. The only private lodge in the park is closed in March-April.

May to October –Dry Season

Chimpanzee are easiest to track from July to October

Lots of sunshine – it seldom rains
Fewer mosquitoes means less risk of malaria

You might see other tourists tracking chimps, but the park never gets really crowded.

November to April –Wet Season

The air is clear and has no haze
Presence of migratory birds makes bird watching great
Butterflies are abundant
The forest tracks will be difficult and slippery to walk on
Chimpanzee might be difficult to find as they move away from the lake
It gets very hot and humid