The main attraction in Mahale Mountains National Park is its population of chimps. There are roughly 800 to 1, 000 chimps in the park, and about 60 of them are very habituated to people. Your guide will take you, on foot, along the forest trails to find them. Chimps aside, eight other primate species have been recorded and at least five are likely to be encountered on a visit. These are yellow baboon, red colobus, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey and vervet monkey.

However, the Eastern slopes of Mahale support savannah and woodland species such as elephant, lion, wild dog, roan antelope, buffalo and giraffe, but they are rarely seen by visitors. Warthogs also often walk around the camp area.

While no real study of Mahale Mountains National Park’s birdlife has been completed, around 230 species have been recorded. Most of them are forest birds, which are quite difficult to spot. This is especially true since walking in the forest unguided is not allowed and the guided walks are focused on chimpanzees, but migratory birds are present from November to April and native species can be seen along the way.

DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS YOU WILL EXPERIENCE

RAINFOREST	LAKE

e Mahale Mountains National Park lies on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the Kigoma Region of Tanzania. Named after the Mahale Mountain range within its borders, the park has several unusual characteristics.

Getting to Mahale Mountains National Park can be complex but it is well worth the travel. During the peak tourist season between June and October the three tour operators with camps in Mahale schedule regular flights between the park and Arusha town, where there is a very well service airport. Between October and March flights arrive and leave twice each week. Between March, April and the first half of May these camps close, meaning there are no scheduled flights.

However it is also possible for visitors to arrange their own charter flights. Tanzania has a large number of charter flight companies such as Air Excel, Northern Air and Regional Air. Private charters can be arranged from the major cities of Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, or Zanzibar to Kigoma and on toward Mahale’s airstrip.

From Arusha it takes 2 or 3 days to reach Kigoma by car, a 4X4 drive vehicle is required. Trains from Dar es salaam leave 2-3 times a week for a three day and two nights journey. From Kigoma, transport to Mahale by speedboats or timber boats from can be arranged with the Park or private operators in Kigoma. The speedboats take between 4 and 5 hours to reach the park while timber boats can take up to 15 hours or more. A large steamship – MV Liemba – leaves Kigoma twice a month [on Wednesday afternoon], carrying passengers and cargo the length of the Lake to Zambia. It makes numerous stops along the way, including one for Mahale, which is referred to as Lagosa (the old name) or famously known as Mgambo. MV Liemba takes around 10 hours to reach Lagosa-Mgambo from Kigoma, and it passes Mahale again on its return journey [either Sunday or Monday morning.

The dry season from May to October is the best time for tracking chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains National Park. At this time, the chimps tend to stay close to the lakeshore and are easier to find. The park stays open throughout the year but, in heavy rain, the trails might be difficult to walk