Chimpanzees & Chimpanzee Species in Nyungwe Forest – Chimpanzees are endangered, playful great apes that have a close relation to human beings.
They share over 90% of the same DNA with humans, making them our closest relatives. Chimpanzees are native to tropical Africa, inhabiting the continent’s vast savannahs, woodlands, and forests.
Simple Chimpanzee Facts
- Chimpanzees are great apes.
- Male chimpanzees (40-70kg) are bigger and heavier than female chimpanzees (27-50kg).
- Aside from the palms, feet soles, toes, fingers, and faces, the rest of their bodies are covered with coarse hair.
- Chimpanzees never use the same nest more than once.
- Fruits make up a significant part of the chimpanzees’ diets as they prefer them to other items such as stems, seeds, leaf buds, birds, insects, honey, smaller mammals like rodents, and other primates. All in all, chimpanzees are mostly herbivorous.
- Chimpanzees can live up to 45 years in the wild.
- An alpha dominant male chimpanzee leads a group known as a community, typically comprising about 50 individuals, more or less.
- Chimpanzees are known to be very intelligent animals, capable of making and using tools like stones for cracking nuts open and shaping sticks to get termites from the ground or harvest honey.
- Female chimpanzees give birth at any time of the year, usually to a single infant per birth.
- Chimpanzees groom each other.
- Increased deforestation and human encroachment on their natural habitats are great threats to the existence of chimpanzees in the wild.
Chimpanzee Species in Nyungwe Forest
There are four recognized subspecies of chimpanzees across Africa. The chimpanzee species in Nyungwe Forest of Rwanda is the Eastern Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii).
The estimated population of Eastern chimpanzees in the wild is between 180,000 to 256,000 individuals.
Nyungwe Forest is an old montane rainforest located in the southern region of Rwanda, under the protection of the famous Nyungwe Forest National Park.
Nyungwe Forest is the only home of the wild chimpanzees found in Rwanda, and some of the chimpanzee groups have been habituated for research and tourism purposes. To enhance your visit, consider staying at a chimpanzee lodge in Rwanda that offers convenient access to the forest.
Visitors to Rwanda can visit Nyungwe Forest National Park and take on the chimpanzee trekking experience for a chance to encounter the endangered primate species, the chimpanzees of Nyungwe Forest.
Chimpanzees in Nyungwe Forest can be trekked any time of the year, and it is only available to visitors 15 years and older.
The activity is carried out in the early morning, and trekkers are allowed a full hour in the presence of the chimpanzees (conditions permitting) to observe them as they go about their day.
One must acquire a chimpanzee trekking permit to take part in this memorable experience.
Aside from chimpanzees, Nyungwe Forest is home to other primate species, including Blue monkeys, Grey-cheeked mangabeys, L’Hoest’s monkeys, Golden monkeys, Owl-faced monkeys, Crowned monkeys, Red-tailed monkeys, Dent’s Mona monkeys, Olive baboons, Vervet monkeys, Ruwenzori colobus monkeys, Hamlyn’s monkeys, Silver monkeys, and Black and white colobus monkeys.
Getting to Nyungwe Forest
Upon your arrival at Kigali Airport in Rwanda, you can either take an easy and scenic drive (public or private) from Kigali to Nyungwe Forest, or you can opt to fly from Kigali Airport to Nyungwe Forest.
You can get on a scheduled flight or take a scenic helicopter ride to Nyungwe Forest.
Visit Nyungwe Forest with these recommended Chimpanzee Trekking Companies or send us an inquiry below to book directly through this website.
