Gombe Stream National Park is the smallest of Tanzania’s national parks: a fragile strip of chimpanzee habitat straddling the steep slopes and river valleys that hem in the sandy northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its chimpanzees – habituated to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who in 1960 founded a behavioral research program that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the world. The matriarch Fifi, the last surviving member of the original community, only three-years old when Goodall first set foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen by visitors. The park’s 200-odd bird species range from the iconic fish eagle to the jewel-like Peter’s twin spots that hop tamely around the visitors’ center. 

Best to know in Gombe Stream National Park

•  Is one of the few places where chimpanzees can still be found in their natural habitat.
•  Dr. Jane Goodall and her colleagues have lived here studgin the primates since 1960.
•  The park have no roads, which allows you to walk and experience nature with all of your senses.
•  Ujiji, near Kigoma, was the site of Stanley’s famous meeting with Livingstone.
•  Following animals can be found in the park – Chimpanzees, Red Colobus, colourful Red-tail and Blue monkeys, Olive baboon, African Civet, Palm civet, genet, Grey duiker, bushbuck, bush baby, bushpig, White-tailed mongoose, Marsh mongoose, Giant rat and the Chequered elephant shrew.
•  Bird life found here includes Ross’s and Livingston’s Turaco, the African and the trumpeter hornbills, pied and giant kingfishers, tropical boubous, white browed coucal, and the crowned eagle.
•  The Kakombe Waterfall is where the Kakombe stream tumbles about 20m down a rocky cliff.