|
Click here for:
CHIMPANZEE TRACKING PICTURE LINK
Our journey began at 6:30am with our hired driver taking us from our lodge to the Chambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth Park.
The chimps in this gorge
have been habituated to allow for viewing at close range.
We had
a "game drive" in between but we saw very little wildlife.
We were met by two
rangers. One was our guide and the other was to protect us as he had a rifle. He said he would never
shoot an animal as they are fully protected under Ugandan law. Instead, he would shot in the air in
the attempt to scare them. I asked him that if a hippo was to attack me, would he kill it? He said no,
he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I'm glad we didn't have to encounter this situation!
As we were driving from the ranger station to our drop off spot, we saw a black-and-white colobus perched
on the very top of a tree in this gorge. I didn't get any pictures as I assumed we would see a lot them.
Had I read up on these type of monkeys ahead of time, I would have known this would be my only
sighting. Read about "Monkeys" under "Animal Facts" to understand why.
We began our three-hour safari by walking the service road on the ridge of the gorge. We walked for about a mile up
and then a mile back, as our guide listened to the monkeys. It's easier to track monkeys if you start by
where you think they are currently located. Our guide finally picked a spot, and we descended into the gorge.
Our guide had excellent ears as we practically walked to right where the chimpanzees were located. This
experience of watching chimps in their natural habitat is one of those life experiences we'll always be
in awe of -- it's an incredible feeling. And to think they are man’s closest living relative as we
share 98% to 99% of our genes with them. Very cool.
We watched two chimps for about 20 minutes. One of the chimps hung by his arm very high in a tree and
ate leaves with his other arm, meanwhile watching
us the whole time. I would like to do more of these type of safaris -- it was so much fun!
We continued on our hike, following our ranger as he listened to the monkeys talk. At one point he
wanted us to cross the Kyambura River on a submerged log. Jeff took one look at it and said absolutely
not as it was about 6" under the water! We crossed at another bigger log and went left. I could hear
monkeys off to the right (you start to get good at it) and felt we should have gone that way, but I
didn't say anything. About an hour later we still hadn't spotted any more monkeys, and the other
ranger spoke up and said we should have gone right. I knew it! About 30 minutes later, we did end up
seeing a red-tailed monkey briefly.
We had a wonderful talk with these rangers and learned a lot about them and the African wildlife. They
couldn't believe we hadn't ever seen chimps that were living in the wild before! The animal they were most
interested in that we have in the U.S. was the bear. Fortunately, Jeff and I know a lot about bears so we
able to educate them about them. This was a really neat adventure to do in Africa!
TOP OF PAGE
Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
All rights reserved.
|