Budongo Forest

Budongo is one of the largest surviving mahogany forests in East Africa, covering around eight hundred square kilometres on the escarpment south of Murchison Falls, and it holds a chimpanzee population of several hundred with communities habituated for research since the 1960s. Tracking runs from the Kaniyo Pabidi site inside the park boundary. The Royal Mile at Busingiro is a straight forest track that is among the best-known birding spots in the country.

Background

The forest stretches over 82,530 hectares on the escarpment northeast of Lake Albert, across parts of Hoima and Kikuube, and feeds the lake through four streams, the Waisoke, Sonso, Kamirambwa and Siba. It is a moist, medium-altitude, semi-deciduous forest broken by patches of savanna and woodland, divided into six blocks, among them Kaniyo-Pabidi, Busaju and Nyakafunjo. One giant mahogany is more than 80 metres in height, with a girth of some 20 metres. Records list more than 360 bird species, 292 butterflies, 465 trees and 24 mammals, nine of them primates, and about 600 chimpanzees are thought to live here. Vernon Reynolds began studying them in 1962 and later founded the Budongo Conservation Field Station.

Source: Wikipedia, "Budongo Forest"

What you'll find

• The chimpanzee tracking - habituated communities followed on foot from Kaniyo Pabidi.
• The mahogany trees - very large specimens surviving from before commercial logging.
• The Royal Mile - a straight forest track known as a top birding site.
• The research history - chimpanzee study running here since the 1960s.

When to go

June to September and December to February are the drier windows. Tracking runs in the morning and afternoon and permits are limited. The forest is humid year round.

Things to know

Tracking permits are limited and should be booked ahead. Chimpanzees range widely and finding them is not guaranteed. The forest is hot, humid and full of biting insects.

Nearby

Murchison Falls is north, and Masindi is south.

Key facts