Nyungwe Forest National Park
Nyungwe National Park is a massive montane forest, in southern Rwanda, the largest in Central Africa, and has thirteen species of primate including chimpanzee, Rwenzori colobus and l'Hoest's monkey. The forest is located in the Albertine Rift, a series of mountain ranges beginning at the Rwenzori Mountains in western Uganda and Congo, continuing south into the Lendu Plateau in eastern Congo. After Kibira National Park in Burundi, Nyungwe is one of the largest mountainous rainforests remaining in Africa and has now achieved national park status, making it East Africa's primary protected high-altitude rainforest.
Nyungwe's biodiversity is astonishing by African standards and is one of the most endemic species-rich areas in all of Africa. Nyubgwe forest's primates include the chimpanzee, which are slowly being habituated. The terrain and undergrowth make chimpanzee tracking difficult but there is a fifty per cent chance of seeing chimpanzees here. The Rwenzori colobus monkeys live in large groups, including a four hundred-strong semi-habituated group thought to be the largest troop of arboreal primates in Africa.
Nyungwe Forest is one of Rwanda's hotspots for birding. There are over 300 species, including the Handsome Francolin, the remarkable, 'painted' Rwenzori Turaco, Mountain Black Boubou, Rwenzori Batis, Yellow-eyed Black Flycatcher, Archer's Robin-chat, Rwenzori Hill Babbler, Red-faced Woodland Warbler, the rare Grauer's Rush Warbler, Neumann's Warbler, Mountain Masked Apalis, the near-endemic Kungwe Apalis and a cluster of colourful Sunbirds including Ruwenzori Double-collared, Purple-throated, Blue-headed and the stunning Regal Sunbird. It is the only site where the sought-after Red-collared Mountain Babbler can be sought in safety.