Chimpanzee Trekking in Rwanda

People book chimpanzee tracking expecting a slightly smaller version of the gorilla trek. It is not. The two encounters have almost nothing in common beyond the word primate, and knowing that in advance changes how much you enjoy it.

It starts in the dark

Briefing at the park reception around five in the morning. Trackers have gone out ahead to find where the community nested overnight, and you set off following their radio reports into a forest that is only just becoming visible.

The reason for the hour is simple: chimps are found at their nests and followed from there. Once they move off to feed they cover ground fast, and the window closes.

You hear them first

Chimpanzees are loud. Pant-hoots carry a long way through the forest, and much of the tracking is done by ear — the guides read the calls precisely, and a sudden eruption somewhere above and ahead is how most encounters begin.

Then the pace changes completely. Where a gorilla family sits and eats and lets you watch for a measured hour, chimps are in constant motion, usually high in the canopy, frequently moving away from you as you arrive.

Manage the expectation

Success rates in Nyungwe are good. They are not guaranteed, and any operator telling you otherwise is selling rather than advising. The communities are habituated and tracked daily, but they are wild animals in a large forest.

Views are often fleeting and steeply upward. Photographs are hard: the light under the canopy is poor and your subject is silhouetted against a bright sky. Bring binoculars, and treat the camera as secondary.

Gorilla trekking is the more reliable spectacle. Chimp tracking is the better forest experience.

How hard is it

The most physically demanding activity in Nyungwe. Steep, slippery, and at times off the formal trails as you follow a moving group. In the wet months the ground is genuinely difficult.

• Boots with real grip, not trainers
• A waterproof jacket, whatever the forecast says
• Long sleeves and trousers
• A head torch for the pre-dawn start
• Binoculars, which matter more here than anywhere else in Rwanda
• Insect repellent

The colobus alternative

If a five in the morning start and an uncertain outcome does not appeal, track the Angolan colobus instead. Nyungwe holds exceptionally large troops — several hundred animals moving through the canopy at once — and the walk is far easier and the sighting far more reliable.

A lot of people who do both say the colobus was the better spectacle, even if the chimps were the better story.

Planning it

• Permits are limited and should be arranged in advance; current costs are confirmed when we quote.
• There is a minimum age, and a distance rule enforced at the sighting.
• Visitors who are unwell may be excluded — chimps share our disease susceptibility.
• Stay on the park boundary. A 5am briefing does not work from an hour away.
• The drier months are easier going and the chimps range less widely.