Location: 10 miles (20 km) North of Kigoma Map
Area: 4471 km²
Gombe Stream National Park was found in 1960 as a chimpanzee habitat intended for behavioral research program of these beautiful apes. If you want to avoid drenching rains you can visit this nature reserve in July-October, however this is also the time when these animals venture around around the park. Chimpanzees tend to be less mobile during wet season in the months of February-June and November-mid December.Gombe Stream National Park is a nature reserve situated 10 miles (20 km) North of Kigoma in the Western Tanzania. Gombe Stream National Park covers an area of 4471 km² of virgin African jungles on the Eastern shores of Lake Tangayika.
The park is located on the shores of Lake
Tanganyika in the western part of the country, 6 km north of Kigoma.
The basis of the park is represented by wild forests on the slopes
of steep hills and river valleys. The north coast of the lake is
sandy. The park can only be reached by boat.
In close
proximity is the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The main attraction of the park is the chimpanzee family (Pan
troglodytes schweinfurthii), the estimated number of which in the
park reaches 90 individuals (no exact studies have been conducted).
In addition, other primates can be found in the park, mainly
red-tailed monkeys, red colobus (Colobus badius tephrosceles) and
baboon anubis (Papio anubis). The main time for observing monkeys is
the rainy season from February to June and from November to
mid-December.
The park has more than 200 species of birds.
Jane Goodall founded a chimpanzee research project in 1960.
Currently, it is the longest and still operating similar project,
and in the park you can still meet the Fifi chimpanzee, who was
three years old when the project was launched.
Research began
even before the creation of the national park and at first focused
on the Kakombe chimpanzee colony that lives in the central part of
the park. In the 1970s, several short studies of baboons and colobus
were carried out, and in the 1990s, researchers were interested in
another colony of chimpanzees Mitumba, which lives in the northern
part of the park. The study of baboons is also ongoing. In addition,
another colony of chimpanzees living in the southern part of the
park is known. Studies affect various aspects of primacy life: their
culture, ways of hunting, the relationship of mother and child, as
well as the behavior of males.