Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center

Lwiro sits in the grounds of a research institute founded in the colonial period, on the hills above Lake Kivu near the boundary of Kahuzi-Biega. It takes in chimpanzees and monkeys confiscated from the bushmeat and pet trades, most of them arriving as orphaned infants, and it holds around a hundred chimpanzees along with several monkey species. Visitors see the animals in forested enclosures and the nursery groups, and the centre is candid that most of these animals will never be released.

What you actually see

• The chimpanzee groups - around a hundred animals in forested enclosures, in social groups.
• The nursery - orphaned infants raised by keepers before joining a group.
• The monkey species - colobus, cercopithecus and others also confiscated from the trade.
• The old institute - the colonial-era research station whose grounds the centre occupies.

When to go

June to September and December to February are the drier windows and easiest for the road. Mornings are when the animals are most active. Visits are arranged in advance rather than dropped in on.

Honest expectations

These are rescued animals in enclosures, not wild ones, and there is no contact with them, which is correct and disappoints some visitors. The road from Bukavu is poor. The centre runs on donations and visitor fees and is candid about the constraints that puts on what it can do.

Nearby

Kahuzi-Biega National Park is nearby to the west, and Bukavu is an hour or more south.