Nyungwe Forest National Park - Chimps, Black and White Colobus Monkey Tracking

Nyungwe Forest is a high-altitude, largest mountainous rainforest in East and Central Africa, located in southern Rwanda conserved as a forest reserve in 1933. The conservation area covers approximately 378 square miles (970 square kilometers). The forest is situated in the Albertine Rift, a series of mountain ranges beginning at the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda and Congo, continuing south into the Lendu Plateau in eastern Congo. Contiguous with Kibira National Park in Burundi, Nyungwe is one of the largest mountainous rainforests remaining in Africa. Just recently the Nyungwe forest received National Park status, making it East Africa’s largest protected high-altitude rainforest.

Nyungwe forest has astonishing biodiversity and is one of the most endemic species-rich areas in Africa. The forest's biodiversity makes it an important water catchment area for Rwanda. It contains many natural resources integral to Rwanda’s human populations.

Visitor activities

Birding activities in Nyungwe Forest
Nyungwe Forest National Park is one of the most important bird watching national park in Rwanda with over 280 bird species recorded and the majority are forest specialists and 26 are regional endemics whose range is restricted to a few forests along the Albertine Rift. Bird watching in Nyungwe can be rather tiring, since the vegetation is thick and many birds tend to stick to the canopy. You don’t have to be an ardent birdwatcher to appreciate some of Nyungwe’s birds. Most people double when they first spot a great blue turaco, a chicken sized bird with garish blue, green and yellow feathers, often seen gliding between the trees along the main road. Another real gem is the paradise flycatcher, along tailed blue, orange and sometimes white bird often seen around the rest house.

Other birds impress with their bizarre appearance the gigantic forest hornbills, for instance, whose wailing vocalizations are almost as comical as their ungainly bills and heavy winged flight. And when tracking through the forest under growth, you should watch out for the red throated alethe, a much localized bird with a distinctive blue-white eyebrow. The alethe habitually follows colobus troops to eat the insects they disturb, and based on our experience it seems humans are merely another large mammal, often perching within a few inches.

Chimp tracking in Nyungwe Forest
The population of chimpanzees in Nyungwe forest ranges between 400-500 individuals. In high rain season, a troop of chimpanzees often moves into Uwinka and the colored trail as well, and it is up to the tourist to decide whether to pay extra to track them. You may be able to hear chimpanzees before you see them. Unlike most other primates, chimpanzees don’t live in troops, but instead form extended communities of up to a hundred individuals, which move around the forest in small mobile sub groups that often revolve around a few close family members like brothers, mothers and daughters. Male chimps normally spend their entire life within the community in which they were born, where as females are likely to migrate into a neighboring community at some point after reaching adolescence.

Although all colobus monkeys are very friendly, the ones in Nyungwe are unique in a way, they typically move in troops of several hundred animals. A semi-habituated troop of 400 species, resident in the forest around the campsite, is known to be the largest troop of arboreal primates anywhere in Africa and else where in the world, only the Chinese golden monkey moves in groups of a comparable number. Most of the other monkeys in Nyungwe are guenons, the collective name for the taxonomically confusing cercopithecus genus.

Other types of monkeys in Nyungwe forest include the L’Hoest’s, Silver monkey, golden monkey, Owl faced monkey, red tailed monkey, Dent’s Mona monkey, crowned monkey, Vervet monkey, and Olive baboon which is a savanna monkey that is occasionally seen along the road through Nyungwe, and Grey-cheeked mangabeys.

AROUND NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK

The Gisakura Tea Estate
A relict forest patch in this tea estate, supports a resident troop of around 40 Rwenzori Colobus monkeys. Oddly, the red – tailed monkey moves with the colobus, and has done so far at least six years. Some of the guides say it is treated as the leader.

Particularly in the early morning, a relict forest patch is also an excellent bird watching site, since it lies in a ravine and is encircled by a road, making it easy to deep into the canopy. Most of what you see are forest fringe or woodland species (as opposed to interior forest birds), but numerically this proved to be the most rewarding spot in Nyungwe, with some 40 species identified in an hour, notably black-throated apalis, paradise and white-tailed crested flycatcher, Chubb’s cisticola, African golden oriole, olive-green cameroptera, three types of sun bird, two greenbuls and two crimson-wings.

Note that a visit to this forest patch is treated as a primate walk by the ORTPN office and a corresponding fee is charged.

The Waterfall Trail
This superb trail takes between 3 - 6 hours to cover as a round trip. The first part of the trail- in essence following the road to the car park-passes through the rolling tea plantations doted with relict forest patches which are worth scanning closely for silver and other monkeys. These small stands of forest can also be rewarding for birds; keen ornithologists might well want to take them slowly, and could perhaps view this section of the trail as worthy bird watching excursion in its own right, then descend into the forest following flat contour paths through tree-fern-covered ravines, and crossing several streams, before a sharp descent to the base of the pretty but small waterfall. Monkeys and birdsd are often seen along the way and the steep slopes allow good views into the canopy. This trail is very rewarding for true forest interior birds, with a good chance of sporting of Albertine Rift endemics such as Rwenzori turaco and yellow – eyed black flycatcher