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Coverage: Gombe Stream National Park was named after
Gombe River. Covering an area of 52 square kilometers, Gombe Stream National
Park is the smallest park in Tanzania. It is located about 24 kilometers
from Kigoma town and north of
Mahale Forest National Park. Though it is
close to town, can only be reached by boat.
Ecology: The park is made up of narrow mountain strip of land about 16
kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide on the shore of
Lake Tanganyika.
From the lake shore steep slopes rises up to form the Rift Valley's
escapement
The Fame: Gombe Stream National Park is synonymous with Jane Goodall, a
British researcher who dedicates her life to study primates in this
area. The park has the most studied primates in the world, having been
studied for over 40 years. Dr. Jane Goodall arrived in
Gombe Stream
National park (PDF) in the
summer of 1960. She was sent by Louis Leaky to study behaviors of
primate and their social relations. Since then she has been involved in
ongoing research and observation of the chimpanzees and baboons in Gombe
Stream. She
has managed to bring the world's attention about chimpanzee, through
various television documentaries of her work in Gombe. Today it is the
longest running study of an individual wild animal population in the
world.
Vegetation and wildlife: The dominating vegetation in this park include
the open deciduous woodland on the upper slopes, gallery forests on the
valleys and lower slopes. This type of vegetation is unique in Tanzania
and has been supporting a large number of Chimpanzee, Baboons, and bird
species. Other species seen here are Colobus, blue and red tail monkeys.
A well-trained guide mostly help visitors to track chimps in the deep
forest. The slopes, which reach the lake shore, are full of birds,
butterflies and primates.
Kakombe Fall: It is a beautiful place in the park to take pictures and
watching baboon.
Safari: done by boat from Kigoma and on foot within the
park.
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Gombe Stream National
Park offers diverse landscape punctuated by rugged hills and waterfalls
beautiful for forest dwelling, chimpanzee tracking and hiking
Gombe and
Mahale National Parks as well as Ugalla Forest
are prime destinations for primate
lovers, ornithologists, forest dwellers and nature trailers. These areas offer active safari,
while tracking chimpanzee on
foot through dense forest and climbing mountains.
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