Unique Features About Kibale National Park
Unique Features; Kibale national park is a unique park at a glance despite its small size of about 760 sq.km. Kibale national park sits on an elevation of about 1590 m above sea level and other areas are 1100m elevated above sea level. This is the side on the floor of the albertine rift valley, south of kibale national park. Kibale conservation area covers area of semliki national park, Toro-semliki wildlife reserve and katonga wildlife reserve. Kibale National Park is bordered by Ruwenzori Mountain ranges about 24 km towards the east and Fort portal town just 20 km north of the park.
Among the Unique Features of Kibale national park is the unique biophysical environment beautified by quite a range of various sceneries which include the magnificent crater lakes, undulating hills, the verdant forest, swamps and the valleys, that provide a verified prospect to eco-tourism in the area. Kibale national park is a real and perfect substitute for an expensive mountain gorilla trekking in bwindi national park. You can chose to go for chimpanzee habituation in kibale national park at a reduced cost where you can even have a large opportunity to trek about 5 habituated chimpanzee groups in the forest.
The uniqueness of kibale forest national park lays in its large population of primates especially the chimpanzees, to the extent of being called the primate capital of the world. Kibale national park is the best destination for chimpanzee trekking and habituation. Most visitors who go to kibale national park are attracted by the large community of habituated chimpanzees. The chimpanzees are the closes mammals to humans because they share almost 99% of the human DNA.
Chimpanzee trekking in kibale national park is done in two shifts; the morning shift and the evening shift starting at 8:00 am and 2:00 pm respectively. Kibale forest is adaptable by the chimpanzees because it is dominated by the lush tall tropical rain forest trees. The chimpanzees love to stay up in the trees; they build their nests in the trees by bending the branches and aligning them with twigs.
During the day, the chimpanzees are terrestrial primates in the daylight. They go down from the nests early in the morning and start the day’s work of looking for food. The chimpanzees feed on soft tree steams, leaves and succulent ripen fruits. The chimpanzees have really incredible hunting skills. They use twigs to remove termites from holes. They also use stones to crack nuts as their snacks during the day. Sometimes the chimpanzees feed on the small rodents like rates and mongooses and small birds. This is there true wild nature and it is the reason they are adaptable to the wilderness.
Chimpanzee habituation is the wholesome activity that allows you to learn broadly about the behaviors of the chimpanzees in kibale national park. The habituation of chimpanzees, unlike chimpanzee trekking, starts so early in the morning around 6am when the chimpanzees are just de-nesting down from the trees, until the evening when they climb back to rest over the night.
Chimpanzee habituation is based at kanyanchu in kibale national park. The habituation promise is mainly done in the low tourism season. This is the wet season of the year; March to June, it is favorable for chimpanzee habituation because it finds the park free with just a few visitor counts. Chimpanzee habituation is a full day activity and it even lasts for more than one day.
Another of the Unique Features of Kibale is the Bigodi wetland sanctuary which is found 6km away from the visitor center at kanyanchu in kibale national park. Besides, the chimpanzee activities in kibale national park, you can choose to take a nature walk through bigodi wetland. Bigodi wetland sanctuary is a home for more than 8 primate species such as the African mangabey, l’hoest’s monkeys and other animals like; the endangered swamp antelopes, statungas, bush pigs, civets, mongooses, bush bucks and baboons are rarely spotted in bigodi.
Visiting bigodi wetland sanctuary is like supporting the community around kibale national park. Bigodi wetland earnings are given back to the community. The women project of bigodi uses the papyrus in the swamp to make awesome crafts that you may need at home.
The unique features about kibale national park are also written all over the crater lakes tours to the national park. The ndali kasenda crater will give you the most unforgettable memories of an African safari. The area is dotted with a number of really ancient explosion craters. The top of the world crater trail is the most interesting. It exposes you to 3 crater lakes and Ruwenzori Mountain. The top of the world crater hike takes for 3- 5 hrs under the lead of a tour guide who is ready to explain the different features and the culture of the different communities.
Kibale national parks uniqueness lies in its ability to accommodate quite a large number of wild animals on a small piece of land. Kibale national park is indeed a wildlife reserve with almost everything you would need to be included to your African safari.
