Best known for :
Gombe is one of the few places that chimpanzees can still be found in their natural habitat – Dr Jane Goodall and her colleagues have lived here studying the primates since 1960, the longest study of its kind. Gombe is a place of personalities as chimpanzees are as individually unique as humans. Perhaps you will assess a flicker of understanding when you look into a chimp’s eyes, assessing you in return. Sharing more than 95% of our genes, it’s a look of recognition from our closest animal relative.
The Chimpanzee Feeding Station is a good place to start looking for chimpanzees and there is always a researcher on duty who is able to say when the last chimpanzees passed through. The Park has no roads, which allows you to walk and experience nature with all of your senses. Ujiji, near Kigoma, was the site of Stanley's famous meeting with Livingstone.
Location : Located 16 kilometres north of Kigoma town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania.
Size : Covering an area of 52 square kilometres, this is the smallest of Tanzania’s National Parks.
Wildlife : The majority of mammals found in the Park are primates – the forest vegetation makes the area unsuitable for carnivores. Chimpanzees, Red Colobus, colourful Red-tail and Blue monkeys, Olive baboon, African Civet, Palm civet, genet, Grey duiker, bushbuck, bush baby, bushpig, White-tailed mongoose, Marsh mongoose, Giant rat and the Chequered elephant shrew can be found in the Park.
Bird life found here includes Ross’s and Livingston’s Turaco, the African and the trumpeter hornbills, pied and giant kingfishers, tropical boubous, white browed coucal, and the crowned eagle.
Environment and Vegetation : Gombe Stream National Park is a narrow strip of mountainous land with the crest of the Great Rift Valley escarpment to the east, and Lake Tanganyika to the west. |
