Kibale chimpanzee trekking in the morning vs evening

Kibale chimpanzee trekking in the morning vs evening: Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale forest national park is carried out in two sessions. Kibale forest national park chimpanzee trekking is carried out in the morning and evening sessions. During both sessions, trekkers must meet the endangered chimpanzees in their natural habitats. Kibale forest national park has over 1500 chimpanzee species therefore chances of meeting are over 80%.

Morning chimpanzee trekking starts at 7:30 am and evening trekking starts at 2:00 pm at Kanyanchu visitor’s center. The sessions start with a briefing to teach trekkers about the rules and regulations of trekking which is done for the safety of trekkers and the chimpanzees. To participate in any of the sessions you need a chimpanzee trekking permit which is from Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Kibale chimpanzee trekking in the morning vs evening

Similarities between morning and evening chimpanzee trekking

The chimpanzee permit price is the same – The chimpanzee trekking permit for Kibale forest national park is the same whether you trek in the morning or evening. Each chimpanzee trekking permit costs $200 for foreign non-residents, $150 for foreign residents, and UGX150,000 for east African residents.

Meeting the chimpanzees is a must – Morning and evening chimpanzee trekking safaris in Kibale forest national park give you an opportunity to meet chimpanzees. The trekking chimpanzees will take 2-6 hours depending on the location of the chimpanzees and the speed of the trekkers. Whether you take little time or longer, you will still meet the chimpanzees.

The national park has armed ranger guides who keep moving in the jungle monitoring the movement of chimpanzees. The armed ranger guides that go first in the jungle communicate with rangers that are with trekkers about the location of chimpanzees so that they use the shortest routes to the group. With the help of armed ranger guides, you will be able to sight chimpanzees on your trek in Kibale forest national park.

Armed ranger guides lead the trek – Both morning and evening chimpanzee trekking sessions in Kibale forest national park are led by armed ranger guides. The armed ranger guides lead the trek because they know the best routes to use while searching chimpanzees and they protect you from any dangerous wild animal.  During the morning and evening sessions, immediately after the briefing, armed ranger guides shall get in your car and move with you to the jungle where you will trek chimpanzees.

The same rules are followed – the morning and evening chimpanzee trekking sessions have the same rules and regulations of the trekking followed. The rules are taught at the briefing center and they include keeping voices low, using cameras that have no flash, keeping a distance of 7 meters away from the apes, and not eating or smoking around chimpanzees.

A maximum of 8 people trek a single family- Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale forest national park is done by a maximum of 72 people a day and each group must contain 8 people. The 8 people in a group use different routes when searching for the apes and this means that the time they will meet the chimpanzee family is different. When the 1 hour of being around chimpanzees elapses it means that the group will end the trek and others like that.

Differences between morning and evening chimpanzee trekking sessions

In Kibale forest national park, the morning chimpanzee trekking session starts very early at 7 am and this means that tourists will find the plants in the jungle with dew while the evening trekking session here starts in the evening at 3 pm and at this time the plants will be dry unless if it’s a rainy season.

Morning chimpanzee trekking in Kibale forest national park tends to be colder than afternoon chimpanzee trekking. In the dry season, there is a big difference in the morning and evening while in the rainy season the difference is very little because the park receives heavy rainfall every day.

Locating Kibale national park chimpanzees in the morning takes short time compared to evening hours and this is because during the morning the chimpanzees are just leaving their nests and in the evening the chimpanzees are moving places looking for food. Trekkers in the morning might not get as tired as those in the evening because of the time taken to locate the chimps.

When it’s a dry season, tourists who trek in the evening hours will get enough sunshine and warmth than those that trek in the morning. This is because the sun is pretty out in the afternoon hours than in the morning hours. During the rainy season, there is not much difference as the area is always cloudy.

During the night the chimpanzees sleep in the same area so in the morning they are still in the group and not yet scattered. This means you have high chances of seeing a large chimpanzee family in the morning than in the evening hours when they have already scattered looking for food.

During the dry season, the trekking trails can be a little bit muddy in the morning but in the evening they are completely dry because of too much sunshine. If the chimpanzees in the evening are not so far the time taken to locate them might not be very much.