Wild Uganda

Savannahs, swamps, bushland and rainforests: Uganda boasts one of the most diverse landscapes on Earth. On the country’s western border, the magnificent snow-capped peaks of the Rwenzori Mountains protrude into the sky. To top it off, Uganda is home to nearly half of Lake Victoria as well as to the upper reaches of the Nile.

Up until very recently, virtually nothing was known about the behaviour of Uganda’s most prominent animal inhabitants – mountain gorillas. We follow the Kyagurilo group, a family of twelve gorillas through the dense, steep jungle of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda’s northeast is a hot, dry savannah extending across the base of a collapsed crater. On the wooded eastern flank of the ancient volcano, deep caves lead into the mountain. One of them, the Kitum cave, serves as a salt depot for a menagerie of wild animals including Savannah elephants. At night the elephants enter Kitum to break the salt off the cave walls with their tusks.

The chimps at Ngogo in the center of Kibale National Park are the largest known chimpanzee community. Researchers with the Ngogo Chimpanzee project have studied the community since 1995; observing the births and the deaths; the immigrations and emigrations, of the group. It has provided crucial information for the preservation of this extraordinary community.