Chimpanzee Habituation Exercise
Chimpanzee Habituation Exercise, before the experience comes, familiarity has to be formed. For this matter, habituation is highly required to vacuum for an experience. Chimpanzee habituation is an exercise aimed at getting the chimpanzees used to human presence in their natural habitat. Chimpanzees are known to be among the greatest apes. chimpanzees tend to have a shy character compared to the gorillas.
What is habituation? The process of people or animals becoming used to something. So that they no longer find it unpleasant or think it is a threat (Cambridge University dictionary). As well, chimpanzee habituation is the process of preparing the chimpanzees in the wild so that they find it okay whenever they encounter people in the sanctuary.
Chimpanzees are social primates that live in communities of about 30 individuals and above. These communities are called troops. Experts like park rangers, primatologists, and zoologists lead the habituation exercise. The habituation starts at the time when the new chimpanzee troop is discovered. And continues until the apes are free to be visited.
The habituation process has greatly increased the opportunity for trackers to become involved. The great experience is customized for guests visiting Uganda, and nowhere else can one engage in the chimpanzee habituation process. The habituation experience is a greater opportunity for one to learn all about the chimpanzee at their sight. It’s a full-day activity of following chimpanzees, and for those who can’t spend the full day. At least they spend about 4 hours with the chimpanzees.
About the chimpanzee habitation experience
The exercise is totally different from the chimpanzee tracking experience. This is done daily on a newly discovered wild chimpanzee family, and then trackers are allowed to join a team of experts for the daily activity. The habituation starts as early as 6 a.m. and continues almost for the full day. With the exercise, researchers and experts are critically looking at the full lifestyle of the chimpanzee community. So, you have an opportunity to learn the behaviors, name some of the chimpanzees, and watch their day to day activities.
The chimpanzee habituation experience is an adventure where trackers spend six hours with the chimpanzees. Habituation has a limited number of trackers not like tracking with 8 trackers, it’s limited to only 4 trackers who join about 2 UWA-armed rangers and a guide. On a walk after finding the endangered chimpanzees, trackers have about 4 hours before the chimpanzees arrive.
Chimpanzee habituation at Kibale National Park
Chimpanzee habituation is only an experience done in Uganda, where people can go into the natural chimpanzee sanctuary and stay with the chimpanzees for almost a full day. Kibale National Park is among the special tropical rainforests in Uganda. Kibale is largely known for accommodating the highest number of primate species; it’s the world’s capital of primates, with about 13 primate species named. Chimpanzee tracking is the primary adventure done in tropical forests, alongside a collection of adventure experiences.
Kibale National Park has about 5 fully habituated chimpanzee troops that are available and ready for tracking, and a single troop is available for habituation experience. Before, the habituation experience was done for a full day, but UWA changed the time to six hours spent in the tropical However, the chance of spending more than an hour or a full day with the chimpanzees still exists at Budongo Forest during the off-season.
Uganda hosts a much greater number of chimpanzees in the wild, about 5,000, and Kibale National Park alone hosts about 1,500 chimpanzee individuals. Other forests to find and track chimpanzees in Uganda include Kyambura Gorge east of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Budondo Forest Reserve south of Murchison Falls National Park, Bugoma Forest, and Semuliki Game Reserve. However, there are other forests where chimpanzees can be found occasionally.
Why chimpanzee habituation experiences?
it’s widely accepted that habituation is the process of getting the chimpanzees used to human presence in their natural habitat. The chimpanzees are shy apes, and they can hide when they see people in their territories. This makes it necessary to accommodate their fear. However, the reason for the habituation experience is to give trackers a new and special touch of adventure. Then, as well as widening the conservation funds, which are some good money, deciding to take chimpanzee habituation is indirectly making you contribute to the proper action of conserving the apes.