Primate facts
They are estimated 704 species and sub species of primates. They are mammals that have typically developed brains, forward facing color vision, flexible hands and feet with opposable thumbs and fingernails. Primates have lower development raters than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later but have longer life spans. With the exception of humans, who live thought the globe, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions? They are divided into great apes, lesser apes, monkeys and prosimians.
Primate conservation
69% of the world population of primate species is threatened by extinction. 43% are classified as critically endangered and some of populations contain a few dozen individuals. All non-human primates are threatened by habitat loss caused by human activities. The loss of habitant’s led to the loss of life. And without the animals to provide crucial activities such as fertilizing the soil.
The habituation experience
If an hour isn’t enough for you to do the tracking experience ,you have a chance to spend a full day with the primates.it takes a full day from when they get up in the morning to when they are ready to go to rest. As the communities you track are wilder, you get as close to these primates. The habituation enables you to get into the behavior and the challenges of the researchers in getting these apes to get used to the presence of humans without changing their natural behaviors.
Tracking seasons
The best time for tracking is January to February, June to September. There are fewer rains during the dry season which makes the trails more comfortable to navigate and you are sure your itinerary will not be interrupted by rain. The wet seasons usually pull fewer crowds, accommodation is cheaper and it’s easier to access the chimp and gorilla permit. But chimpanzee tracking during the wet season would mean you endure the unfriendly experience of the rains, impassable trails and some difficult photography. Some travellers choose the wet season for the experience and price tag on the Tanzania safaris.
Chimpanzee trekking in Gombe and Mahale NP
The most popular primate safaris in Tanzania are in Gombe and Mahale, Chimpanzee trekking is the main activity carried out in Gombe national park. Sites of intensive studies of chimpanzees, mankind’s closest living genetic kin with 95-98% of DNA in common. However, the differences between ape and man are vast, as if the same DNA bricks were used to build very different structures, like comparing a brick wall to a palace.
Dame Jane Good all studied one group of over 60 chimpanzees, the Kasakela community, which you may see on a chimpanzee safari to Gombe Stream National Park, where she has set up a research center. She watched over their development for half a century, discovering that they used tools, ate meat, communicated in complicated hoots and had an interactive social hierarchy.
With strict rules to protect the over 100 resident chimps, which are vulnerable to human infections, visitors over 15 years of age on trekking tour in Gombe may observe community interactions for up to an hour a day. Mahale Mountains National Park is larger, tougher primate wilderness for a Tanzania chimp safari. It shelters more than 800 chimpanzees and many other primates.
Spend an adventure-filled morning searching the forested slopes of the Mahale Mountain National Park, ideally placed on the banks of Lake Tanganyika in the Kigoma Region of Tanzania, in search of the elusive chimpanzee. The park stands as one of only two chimpanzee protected areas in the country, as well as boasting the largest chimpanzee population, and the only park where chimpanzees and lions exist side by side.
The topography illustrates mostly craggy and rolling hills, running across the towering Mahale Mountains chain that dominates the northwest and southeast sectors of the park. Mount Nkungwe boasts a grand elevation of 2 462 m above sea level.
Walking safaris across the stunning lowland woodlands awards guests the rare opportunity to tread the very paths of myriad wildlife and birdlife that call the park. 82 species of mammals are peppered throughout Mahale National Park, including a group of habituated chimpanzees.
Chimpanzees are large, powerful primates, with hairless hands, feet and faces. Though smaller than gorillas, they tend to be livelier, noisier and generally more arboreal. Communities may number 15 to 150 members. They observe complex patriarchal social structures, in which individuals switch between smaller groups according to political allegiances.
Predominantly herbivores, eating fruit and other plant matter, chimps will co-operate to collect a wide variety of other food –sometimes hunting monkeys and other small mammals. Youngsters are highly dependent upon their mothers, and not weaned for three years. Studies of chimps, both wild and captive, have revealed impressive cognitive skills, including tool-use and language, and advanced levels of emotion and self-awareness.
Baboons
You can find two species of baboons in Tanzania olive and yellow. They live in large social troops, which are mainly matriarchal. Some of the best places to see baboons in the natural surroundings in Tanzania are the Gombe and Manyara national parks. As Gombe is more dedicated to chimpanzees, Lake Manyara National Park is a better choice. This is a 329 sq. km area with a lake, forest, woodland, grasslands, and swamps. It is famous for the world’s largest concentration of baboons. The best season to come is the dry season, as during heavy rains primates tend to hide and don’t spend much time out and about.
Males move from one troop to another and fight for their right to stay and improve their social rank. The larger and darker olive baboons can be found in northern Tanzania, while smaller yellow baboons live in the southern and coastal parts of Tanzania. They usually choose places closer to water sources and with safe sleeping places mainly found on the high trees or cliffs.
They also carefully choose what to eat. Baboons mostly feed on grass, berries, seeds, pods, blossoms, leaves, roots, and some plants. But they can also eat insects and meat, like birds, small animals, fish, and shellfish. Their main predators are humans, leopards, and cheetahs. They usually run away and hide, but sometimes males can form a line and show their large canines and aggressively howl. This can force some predators to think twice and back off. Be careful with them though, as they can become very aggressive.
Guenon Monkeys in Gombe National Park
Gombe’s high levels of diversity make it an increasingly popular tourist destination. Besides chimpanzees, primates inhabiting Gombe include beachcomber olive baboons, red colobus, red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, and Vervet monkeys. Red-tailed monkeys and blue monkeys have also been known to hybridize in the area.
Guenon’s Family groups
These monkeys live to about 20 years of age. Guenon species are social and live in family groups of up to 50 individuals. However, the troop may form smaller groups when available food sources become limited. Families may consist of one dominant male, several females, and their offspring. Other males drift in and out of certain territories or may form separate bachelor groups.
Reproduction
Gestation period is about 170 days, with a single baby born at a time. Twins do occur but are less common than single offspring. Guenon babies are generally born lighter in color than their mothers. Their darker, adult coats come in when they are 4 to 6 months old.
How do they look like?
All guenons have colorful fur, face masks, large cheek pouches (used for storing food), rump pads, and long tails which help with balance while maneuvering through trees. Guenon has a white nose, puffy, white cheek pouches, and a long, chestnut-red tail. The skin around the eyes can be greyish-blue in color. Guenons are 12 to 24 inches long, and the tail is 21 to 35 inches in length. Males weigh an average of 7 to 10 pounds, females, 7 to 8 pounds.
How do they communicate?
While guenons make a variety of sounds, they also communicate with several gestures and facial expressions: an open mouth showing sharp teeth, closed eyelids, or a movement of the head or tail can get different messages across to other guenons loud and clear.
Kipunjis in Ndundulu & Rungwe Forests
They are sometimes called the highland mangabey. They became known in 2003 although the local communities had been long familiar with these large charismatic monkeys. They live in montane forests. Two main populations are found in exclusively protected areas.
Kipunjis are found between 1300 and 2450m above sea level in discrete portions of the forests of Mt. Rungwe and the adjacent Livingstone Mountains within Kitulo National Park and Ndundulu forest within Kilombero Nature Reserve in southwestern Tanzania. Kipunjis prefer the shelter of the forests to avoid the open spaces. Their population becomes fragmented as their habitant degrades.
What they eat?
Kipunjis were observed eating bark, young and mature leaves, ripe and unripe fruits, flowers, pith, seed pods, rhizomes, tubers, shoots and stalks.
Kipunjis Groups
Found in groups estimated at 30 to 36 males and females, with a maximum of two infants. There is no evidence of an animal traveling alone. To date, three groups have been found in the Ndundulu Forest Reserve and 16 groups have been found in the Rungwe-Livingstone forest.
Reproduction
Kipunjis breeding intervals are unknown
Mangabeys in Udzungwa Mountains
This mangabey is endemic to East Africa, and only occurs in two forests in the Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania.
Mangabeys are some of the most rare and endangered monkeys on Earth. They look somewhat like guenons but are bigger. Local people call some of them “the ones with the thin waist” or “four-eyed monkeys,” because some kinds of mangabeys have bright white eyelids. Mangabeys are divided into different types
Grey-cheeked mangabey are one of about 10 different species of slender, monkeys with long arms and legs found in African tropical forests, found in Tanzania. Mangabeys are fairly large and walk on all fours they also have cheek pouches and deep depressions under the cheekbones.
What they eat?
Mangabeys are mainly fruit eaters, although they can also eat leaves, nuts, seeds, insects, and spiders. Powerful teeth and jaws help them crack hard nut shells or bite into thick-skinned fruits. Mangabeys also tear bark from trees using their teeth and hands to find bugs and spiders hiding underneath. The biggest meal of the day for mangabeys is breakfast, and they start foraging for food in the early morning, often before the sun comes up. Like many monkeys, mangabeys lick nectar from flowers, moving from tree to tree for this sweet feast, earning them status as pollinators as well as seed dispersers.
Mangabey Family groups
Mangabeys live in groups, called troops, of about 10 to 40 individuals, depending on the species and the availability of food and habitat. There is usually one adult male that acts as leader and the troop’s defender, but sometimes larger troops have two or three adult males that split off with their own family units to forage for food. When there is plenty of food available, mangabey troops often gather together for a while and even exchange troop members.
Reproduction
Mangabeys begin breeding at age 4 to 5 and breed throughout the year with a gestation period of 165 to 175 days.
How do they look like?
Mangabeys can be golden brown, gray, dark brown or soft black, depending on the species or subspecies, usually with a lighter color on the underbelly. Youngsters are generally darker than the adults. White-collared mangabeys have reddish hair on their head, a “beard” on each cheek, and white hair that wraps around their neck like a collar (hence the name) Black mangabeys have long, grayish brown whiskers that almost cover their ears and a high crest on their head a pointy hairdo. All mangabeys have a tail that is longer than their body, providing balance for them as they scamper through the rain forest canopy.
How do they communicate?
Mangabeys have some interesting ways of communicating with each other. It’s often hard to see one another in the dense forest canopy, so sound is very important. In fact, mangabeys can be very noisy, a special throat sac gives them a booming voice. The sac is larger in the adult male, he can make shrieking alarm calls to alert others to danger, and he barks, twitters, and grunts to let other mangabey groups in the area know where his is, so they don’t accidentally intrude. The adult females often join in with a loud chorus.
Conclusion, Tanzania is one of the countries in East Africa with playful primates that attract tourists from different countries to Tanzania just to see these beautiful primates above.