Like its neighbor Gombe, Mahale Mountains National Parks is a chimpanzee sanctuary with a population of over 1,000. In addition to chimpanzees, you can also find yellow baboons, red colobus, red-tailed, vervet monkeys, bush babies, bush-pigs, bushbuck, blue duiker, civet, hyrax, and white-tailed monoose in the park. Moreover, bordered by lake Tanganyika to the west over 250 different species of fish have been found here.

Size:

1,613 sq km

Location:

Western Tanzania, bordering lake Tanganyika

Getting to:

Take a charter flight from Arusha, Dar or Kigoma. Or a national park motorboat from Kigoma, which will take three to four hours.

Best time to visit:

Dry season (May-October) is best for forest walks although no problem in the light rains of October/November.

Why Should you visit?

The area is also known as Nkungwe, after the park's largest mountain, held sacred by the local Tongwe people, and at 2460 meters (8,069 ft) it is the highest of the six prominent points that make up the Mahale Range. And while chimpanzees are the star attraction, the slopes support a diverse forest fauna and array of colorful forest birds. Also present but harder to find are buffalo, elephant, giraffe, leopard, lion, porcupine, and various types of antelope.