The Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector in Kibale National Park consists of over 200 chimpanzees, including over 30 adult males and over 58 adult females. This community has the largest population in Uganda, with the overall population 3 times higher than that in the Kanyawara Sector in the same park. The reason for this is attributed to the favorable conditions that make them strive in large numbers. This community of chimps has undergone habituation, hence providing researchers immense opportunities to conduct extensive studies since the mid-1990s. This has been done by David Watts and John Mitani, in collaboration with Jeremiah Lwanga, PhD students, post-graduate students, and various research assistants.
Research at Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector has played a significant role in enabling numerous academics and the general public to learn more about this amazing community. Among many, examples of studies here include the ecological factors for the chimpanzees’ unique demographic situation and how it has influenced their behavior. Another study focuses on the botanical aspects of their habitats and their relationship to their survival. Other topics regard the social relationships among the chimpanzees, including mating behavior, feeding, territoriality and reproduction, etc. These studies have also involved various Ugandan personnel to work in various ways, like in collecting fecal and urine samples and as law enforcement.
About the chimpanzees in Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector
The chimpanzees in the Ngogo Sector are common chimps known for having coarse black hair covering their body, with their faces, toes, hands, palms, fingers, and feet exposed. Each chimpanzee has a round head with a face containing forward-facing eyes, a tiny nose, round ears without lobes, and forwardly extended jaws. Their arms are relatively longer than their legs and reach below their knees. Each hand has long fingers with a short thumb and flat fingernails. Their feet are used for grasping and contain opposable big toes. They are adapted to move in trees by climbing vertically and brachiation. Also, they can move on the ground, either bipedally or quadrupedally, which is done by knuckle-walking like in gorillas.
On average, the adults stand at a height of 150 centimeters, while weighing 40 to 70 kilograms for males and 27 to 50 kilograms for females. They can survive up to the age of 50, sustained by a diet that constitutes mainly ripe fruits. However, they can also eat leaves, seeds, stems, bark, honey, insects, birds, and other primates especially the red colobus monkeys. These chimps, like humans, live in communities, in contrast to gorillas who live in families. A female chimp produces offspring after a gestation period of around 8 months. This offspring stays with the mother until the ages between 8 and 10. At around 13 years of age, the females become sexually mature, while the males are considered adults when they are around 16.
Every night, the chimpanzees build different nests to sleep in and never use them again. Each chimp sleeps alone in the nest unless it is an infant or juvenile, to sleep with their mother. Other aspects of their behaviors include joint pant hoot chorusing, often among the male chimps to demonstrate strong social bonds. The chimps form long-term bonds in which they can even share meat after hunting prey. They have been observed to have reconciliation strategies also known as peaceful post-conflict interactions by engaging in affiliative behaviors like grooming after aggressions with each other. They hunt in groups and sometimes a male chimp will prey on infant chimps, often cannibalizing those from another community.
About the Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector habitat
The Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector is nestled in Kibale National Park, which is situated in the southwest of Uganda. Created in 1993, Kibale National Park covers approximately 795 square kilometers and is adjacent to the eastern foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains. The ecosystem contains moist deciduous, evergreen forests and lies on altitudes ranging between 920 and 1,590 meters above sea level. Other habitats include grassland, woodland, swamp, and forest. These habitats in Kibale National Park house the largest population of chimpanzees in Uganda, with at least 1,300 individuals.
In terms of weather, Kibale National Park receives 2 rainy seasons and 2 dry seasons each year, with the latter running from late December to February and from June to August. The rainy season falls from March to May and September to early December. However, it should be noted that these vary in some years. The total mean annual rainfall is around 1,444 millimeters, while the mean annual temperature ranges between a minimum of 14 to 15oC and a maximum of 26 to 27oC with small variations daily.
How to get to Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector
Both road and air are the only modes of transport used to reach Ngogo Chimpanzee Sector in Kibale National Park. Kibale National Park is about 276 kilometers from Kampala, which is a 5-6-hour scenic drive. From the Kanyanchu Visitor’s Center, it is a 35-minute drive to reach the Ngogo Chimpanzee sector. On air, the flight starts from Entebbe International Airport to Kasese Airport. AeroLink offers scheduled flights that take 1½ to 3 hours. From here, you will be transferred to Kibale National Park by road, taking 1½ hours. Standard Safaris can arrange either mode of transport for you to ensure a streamlined transfer. Besides a good working relationship with AeroLink, we also offer car hire services, with a fleet of 4X4 safari cars, manned by experienced English-speaking guides to guarantee safe travel. It should however be noted that chimpanzee trekking has not officially started in this sector of Kibale National Park.
