Gorillas & Primates

Uganda's star attraction is the endangered mountain gorilla, the bulkiest of living primates, and among the most peaceable. Staring into the pensive brown eyes of these gentle giants, who share 95% of their genes with humans, is as humbling as it is thrilling; no less so when one realises that fewer than 700 individuals survive, divided between Bwindi National Park and the Virunga Mountains.

Within Uganda, five habituated Gorilla troops - four in Bwindi and one in Mgahinga National Park - Can be visited by a total of 30 tourists daily. Uganda is also home to man's closest relative, the Chimpanzee, a delightful ape whose evocative pant-hoot call is a definitive sound of the African rainforest. Chimpanzee communities have been habituated for tourism at Kibale Forest, Budongo Forest and Queen Elizabeth National Park's Kyambura Gorge. A community of orphaned chimps, most of which were confiscated from poachers, can be visited on Ngamba Island, which lies on Lake Victoria 45 minutes by motorboat from Entebbe.

Monkeys are exceptionally well represented in Uganda. Indeed, Kibale Forest boasts the greatest primate variety and density in East Africa, with five or six species likely to be observed over the course of one afternoon walk. Elsewhere, Mgahinga National Park hosts habituated troops of the rare golden monkey, while Murchison Falls is one of the few East African strongholds for the spindly, plains-dwelling patas monkey

A visit to this East African country ( Uganda ) will definetly blow your mind away.