Kibale National Park Map

Kibale national park reserves an evergreen tropical forest which harbors a lot of wildlife species spatially distributed in different ecosystems that range from thick evergreen forests, swamps, woodlands, and open savannah among others. Kibale national park is located in the western region of Uganda and occupies an area of about 776 sq.km. Kibale national park is located in the great western rift valley. This is an attribute to the variation on the terrain elevation within Kibale national park. Kibale national park sits on an elevation of 1600m above sea level at its highest point, and  1100m above sea level as the lowest elevation point which of the southern part of the park in the rift valley floor.

Spatial distribution of Kibale National Park

The northern part of Kibale national park is where you find a high concentration of a tropical forest perched with woodland sections and a small area is occupied by the grasslands. The northern part of Kibale is also where you find a planted forest, which is enough evidence for the colonialist exploitation centuries ago; according to the history of Kibale national park. The fringes of Kibale national park in the north have small farmlands for the villages surrounding Kibale national park. The northern part of Kibale national park is where most chimpanzees trekking is conducted.

The central part of Kibale national park is a thick forest dominated with tall trees some of with are natural forest trees, however, the others are old eucalyptus trees planted by the Europeans during the colonial era in Uganda, a few years ago. The central part of Kibale national park is where the visitor center is located at Kanyanchu; near the banks of river Kanyanchu. Kanyanchu is also the starting point for chimpanzee trekking in Kibale national park. About 20km south of Kanyanchu is where you find Bigodi swamp sanctuary and Magombe swamp.

The western park of Kibale national park is occupied by a degraded forest cover due to encroachment for farming land and settlements land. The south, on the other hand, is occupied with areas of open savannah. Some areas in the southern part of Kibale national park is also covered by papyrus. The southern part of Kibale National Park almost has no accommodation facilities.

Most accommodation facilities are found in the north and central part of Kibale national park. However the most concentration of national park is found around Kanyanchu visitor Centre, for example, Tinka’s, Kibale primate lodge, Safari hotel, and chimp valley resort and chimpanzee nest among others. Chimpanzee guest house is found in the northwest of Kibale national park almost in the same vicinity of Kibale Crater Lakes.