Gombe Game Reserve - Africa Natural Tours ( africanaturaltours.com )
Gombe
Game Reserve: Africa Natural Tours
AFRICA
NATURAL TOURS
(The best tour company in Tanzania)
Specialized in: Mountain climbing,
Wildlife safaris, Cultural tourism and Beach holidays
Contact
+255 653 679 958 OR +255 692 436 113
Gombe Game Reserve
An
excited whoop erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen
other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking
crescendo. It is the famous ‘pant-hoot’ call: a bonding ritual that allows the
participants to identify each other through their individual vocal
stylisations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of
Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent
visual contact with man’s closest genetic relative: the chimpanzee.
Gombe
is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks: a fragile strip of chimpanzee
habitat straddling the steep slopes and river valleys that hem in the sand Tanganyika.
Its chimpanzees – habituated to human visitors – were made famous by the
pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who in 1960 founded a behavioural research
program that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the world.
The matriarch Fifi, the last surviving member of the original community, only
three-years old when Goodall first set foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen
by visitors.
Chimpanzees
share about 98% of their genes with humans, and no scientific expertise is
required to distinguish between the individual repertoires of pants, hoots and
screams that define the celebrities, the powerbrokers, and the supporting
characters. Perhaps you will see a flicker of understanding when you look into
a chimp's eyes, assessing you in return - a look of apparent recognition across
the narrowest of species barriers.
The
most visible of Gombe’s other mammals are also primates. A troop of beachcomber
olive baboons, under study since the 1960s, is exceptionally habituated, while
red-tailed and red colobus monkeys - the latter regularly hunted by chimps –
stick to the forest canopy.
The
park’s 200-odd bird species range from the iconic fish eagle to the jewel-like
Peter’s twinspots that hop tamely around the visitors’ centre.
After
dusk, a dazzling night sky is complemented by the lanterns of hundreds of small
wooden boats, bobbing on the lake like a sprawling city.
About Gombe Stream National Park
Size: 52 sq km (20 sq miles), Tanzania's smallest park.
Location: 16 km (10 miles) north of Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in
western Tanzania.
Getting there
Getting there
Kigoma is connected to Dar and Arusha by scheduled flights, to Dar and Mwanza
by a slow rail service, to Mwanza, Dar and Mbeya by rough dirt roads, and to
Mpulungu in Zambia by a weekly ferry
From Kigoma, local lake-taxis take up to three hours to reach Gombe, or
motorboats can be chartered, taking less than one hour.
Accommodation
1 new luxury tented lodge, as well a self-catering hostel, guest house and
campsites on the lakeshore.
NOTE
Strict rules are in place to safeguard you and the chimps. Allow at least 2
days to see them - this is not a zoo so there are no guarantees where they'll
be each day.
For
more information visit www.africanaturaltours.com
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