Gombe National Park

Gombe is Tanzania’s smallest national park in the western part of Tanzania, alongside Lake Tanganyika. It’s known for its chimpanzees, which are the focus of Jane Goodall’s pioneering research program that began in 1960 and is now the longest-running program of its kind in the world.

Chimpanzees share about 98% of their genes with humans, and any of them can distinguish between the individual repertoires of pants, hoots, and screams of their fellow chimpanzees. When you look into a chimp’s eyes, there may be a flicker of understanding, signaling apparent recognition across the narrowest species barriers.

When you enter Gombe, you’ll hear an excited whoop from deep within the forest, the “pant-hoot” bonding ritual that lets other chimps identify themselves through their unique vocal stylizations. This outburst also indicates that the chimps have spotted human beings, their closest genetic relatives.

Aside from the chimpanzees, Gombe is home to several other primate species. A troop of beachcomber olive baboons is also there, while red-tailed and red colobus monkeys stay in the forest canopy.