Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust (VSPT), in partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), has opened a permanent chimpanzee monitoring facility at the VSPT Research Centre, Kyambura Gorge Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.
It builds on the Kyambura Gorge Ecotourism Project that has been working to safeguard the gorge’s ecosystem since 2009.
Fieldwork will be led by VSPT trainees and UWA rangers. “This project continues the long-term research of the Kyambura chimpanzees by Nicole Simmons. It is exciting to be working in partnership with the UWA to train young local people to become the next generation of conservationists,” says Alexander Braczkowski, Scientific Director at VSPT.
The monitoring team will locate chimpanzee parties in the gorge and record their GPS coordinates as well as photograph individuals for identification and log community size and composition. Long-term monitoring efforts will document feeding and social behaviour and assess potential human-wildlife conflict.
