GUIDE FOR CHIMPANZEE TREKKING SAFARIS IN TANZANIA WITH AFRICANMECCA

There are four subspecies of chimpanzees in Africa, all threatened by loss of their tropical forest habitats. One sub-species is found in western Tanzania on the banks of the stunningly beautiful Lake Tanganyika. Tanzania is claimed as the most biologically diverse area in Africa, with 27 primate species, one-third of which are to be found nowhere else in our natural world.

The most vulnerable primate is the tree-dwelling auburn Kipunji with shaggy sideburns like spaniel’s ears, an entirely new genus first discovered on Mount Rungwe in 2003. The Zanzibar Red Colobus, red-backed with a bizarre white topknot, is also extremely vulnerable and found in Jozani Forest. Other Colobus, black with white capes, or black and white with red wigs, are more widely spread. Olive baboons with dog faces and raised tails are commonly seen on wildlife vacations in Africa and round-eyed nocturnal bush babies and vervet monkeys often visit camps.



The most popular primate safaris in Tanzania with AfricanMecca are in Gombe and Mahale, sites of intensive studies of chimpanzees, mankind’s closest living genetic kin with 95-98% of DNA in common. However, the differences between ape and man are vast, as if the same DNA bricks were used to build very different structures, like comparing a brick wall to a palace.

Dame Jane Goodall studied one group of over 60 chimpanzees, the Kasakela community, which you may see on a chimpanzee safari to Gombe Stream National Park, where she has set up a research center. She watched over their development for half a century, discovering that they used tools, ate meat, communicated in complicated hoots and had an interactive social hierarchy.

With strict rules to protect the over 100 resident chimps, which are vulnerable to human infections, visitors over 15 years of age on trekking tour in Gombe may observe community interactions for up to an hour a day. Mahale Mountains National Park is larger, tougher primate wilderness for a Tanzania chimp safari. It shelters more than 800 chimpanzees and many other primates.



Only one group, are habituated to humans while the rest are wildly skittish. First contact, after negotiating steep mountainous trails to find them, is usually announced by a chorus of blood-curdling hoots from the tree canopy, before you come upon a social group of several dozens, playing, nursing their babies and grooming each other in a clearing where you can watch them from a distance of no less than 10 meters.

Chimpanzees have also been reintroduced on Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria, northern Tanzania, but are quite elusive. AfricanMecca organizes extraordinary safaris to view the chimpanzees. These can be deluxe or luxurious and combine as you wish with idyllic beach and mountain locations to give you the best of all possible East African holiday experiences.



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