The Kanyanchu area is where standard tracking happens, with treks departing at fixed times through the day. Groups walk with ranger guides for anywhere from under an hour to several, and the success rate is high — well above ninety per cent on most reports. Once you find them you have one hour, usually with chimps feeding overhead, moving on the ground and calling in the pant-hoot chorus that carries through the forest.

The habituation experience is the deeper option: a full day with a community still being accustomed to humans, joining researchers from before dawn when the chimps leave their night nests until they build new ones. It is harder, longer and more expensive, and it shows you the process rather than the product.

The forest generally holds the other twelve primates — red colobus, black-and-white colobus, grey-cheeked mangabey, L'Hoest's monkey and more — along with an excellent bird list including green-breasted pitta, a species birders travel specifically for.

The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary next door is a community-run project with a boardwalk through papyrus swamp, excellent for primates, birds and a very different habitat. It is one of the better community tourism schemes in Uganda.

Permits and practicalities

A standard chimpanzee permit costs 250 US dollars for foreign non-residents and buys one hour with the chimps; the habituation experience costs 300 dollars for a full day. Uganda also runs reduced low-season rates in April, May and November. Book six to eight weeks ahead for the peak months.

Kibale sits on the western Uganda circuit between Queen Elizabeth and Fort Portal, and combines naturally with Bwindi. Forest walking is muddy and hot; long trousers, proper boots and a mask when close to the chimps are all sensible — they share our diseases.