Ngamba Island Chimpanzee sanctuary | Uganda Chimpanzee Tour , Primates Tours and Safaris

Ngamba Island Chimpanzee sanctuary.
Ngamba Island is situated 23 km southeast of Entebbe, islands and islets separated from part of the Kome archipelago. A group of about 15 islands and islets are separated from the northern shore of Lake Victoria by the 10km-wide Damba channel.

The sanctuary was established as a chimpanzee sanctuary in1998 when 19 orphaned chimps were relocated there from the Uganda wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe and the smaller Isinga Island in Queen Elizabeth national park. These chimps had all been saved from captivity or a laboratory when they were confiscated by the Ugandan authorities and brought to UWEC for care and rehabilitation, with some being released onto Isinga in the mid 1990s.

The sanctuary exists to provide the best facilities and care to chimpanzees redeemed from captivity, for which reason the management has elected not to allow the chimps breed. All sexually mature females at the island are given a contraceptive implant, which doesn’t disrupt the community’s normal sexual behaviour but does prevent pregnancy in the same way as the human contraceptive pill.

Day trips to the island are timed to coincide with the pre-arranged supplementary feeding times of 11:00 and 14:30, when the chimpanzees come to within meters of a raised walk a way, offering an excellent opportunity to observe and photograph one of our closest animal relatives. Half-day trips by motorboat leave Entebbe at 09:30 and 13;00 daily by prior  arrangement.