This island is surrounded by the peaceful waters of Lake Victoria; Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary is home to 48 orphaned chimps rescued from throughout Uganda. Island facilities offer day and overnight visitors an exceptional opportunity to closely observe and interact with these fascinating great apes in this unique setting. So after securing your rental car in Uganda, set off for this island and make sure that by 9am, you are at water front waiting to go to Ngamba Island with a speed boat such that by 10 am you are already there. This island is known for chimpanzees which were rescued from poachers.
At the sanctuary, the chimpanzees are enclosed in the 95 acres with a fence and remaining five acres are for administration. According to the care taker, they started with 19 chimpanzees and now they are 47 chimpanzees. Females are injected implants to prevent them from breeding. This is because the land is small and food is not enough that’s why besides the natural food in the forest, they are fed on fruits and vegetables by cares takers like thrice a day.
You will participate in the feeding sessions of these primates where they come down from the forest and it is at this time that you will view them at length. Only 25 visitors are allowed per session, the first one starts at 11:00am and the second starts at 2:30 pm.
Besides chimpanzees, there are so many other attractions which make the place unique. The island is gifted with 120 species of birds like weaver birds, cormorants, and Egyptian goose. On top of birds, there is a big monitor lizard around the compound, it comes and bask in the sun shine.
The island is small and the chimpanzees are increasing in number, so there is a plan of transferring some chimpanzees to Murchison falls National Park. Since these primates were rescued from poachers, every chimpanzee here at Ngamba Island has history of where it was rescued, and they are named according to such situations.
By this time you will have exhausted everything you would like to know about this island. You will jump on to the boat and return to the water front in Entebbe where you will jump on to your car and drive back. This will mark the end of this one day self-drive trip to Ngamba Island Island Chimpanzee sanctuary.
