Budongo forest Reserve

Budongo forest is a semi-deciduous tropical rain forest located at the top of the Albertine rift in Uganda, it is part of Murchison Falls conservation area and has the largest number of chimpanzees in Uganda. It’s also home to over 360 species of birds, 450 species of trees (including mahogany), and 24 species of mammals. It is a part of Murchison falls national park conservation area. This forest is under the watch care of the national forests. Other than chimpanzees, one may come across olive baboons, white and black colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and blue monkeys. Budongo has two ecotourism sites, Kaniyo Pabidi and Busingiro, and is managed by The Jane Goodall Institute.

Conservation and setting of budungo forest

Budungo forest is located on a relative wide space of about 435 sq. km and is mainly composed of moist, medium altitude and semi-deciduous trees. Budungo is however not completely a forest, it contains some savannah perched areas and woodland and covers an area of undulating landscape extending down the east African great rift valley. It is a beautiful heaven with clear water streams that drain through it to lake albert in the east, these streams include; waisoke, sonso, kamirambwa and siba.

The area receives a lot rainfall as a result of the heavy vegetation and humidity in the area. The rainfall is mainly received in the wet or rainy season from March to May, and they return in September to November.

Note; The dry season is the best time to visit the forest as the terrain is dry. This is from December to February.

Wildlife species in the forest.

Budungo forest is truly naturally endowed with unique wildlife like the different animal species and vegetation that inhabit the forest. Chimpanzee tracking is the main visitor activity in the forest mainly packaged together with the Murchison falls national park safaris in Uganda. Bugundo forest is a home for chimpanzees and many other primates species for example the red-tailed monkeys, the black and white colobus monkey, blue monkeys, olive baboons and the night primate species like the pottos and galago species.

Budongo forest harbor’s quite a number of bird species; bird species about 360, the puveli illadopsis is an endemic species, chocolate backed king fisher, black headed paradise fly catcher, lemon billed gromec, forest robin, white-spotted flufftail, yellow and grey long bill, little green, sun bird, and the black headed oride among the rest. Budungo also has 24 species of small mammals, 280 species of butterflies.

Climate and weather.

The forest is located near the equator making its daily temperature almost the came throughout the year. The maximum temperature of the day is about 31 degrees Celsius. The wet season in budungo forest receives much amount of rainfall in march to May and September to October and extends up to mid-November. However, there is little of no rain fall at all in the dry season, which is December to February and June to august. The dry season is also the best season for visitors activities like, nature walks, hiking, chimp trekking, and birding, this is so, because the trails are always dry and passable.

Directions to budungo forest.

Budungo forest is located in the south eastern part of Murchison falls national park, a one hour thirty minute drive over a 30 km distance from Masindi main town. Budungo forest is reached from kichimbanyobo gate in the southern part of Murchison falls national park. From the gate, follow the main road to paraa and after about 8km, you will see the sign post of budungo eco-lodge, the forest headquarters are near the eco lodge.

Activities

Apart from chimpanzee trekking tourists can engage in other activities like;

Bird watching;

One of the main tourist activities at budungo forest is bird watching, the forest is home to over 360 bird species including some of the rarest birds in east Africa. Some of the birds found include; puvels illadopsis, forest robin, African emerald cuckoo, yellow and grey long bill, yellow browed camaroptera, black headed flycatcher, chocolate backed king fisher, white spotted flufftail, lemon bellied crombec, and many more.

Guided walks;

Guided nature walks are carried out with the instruction of a knowledgeable tourist guide who will tell you all the information that you may require on the forest. Tourists will also be able to come across a lot of other wildlife and plant species as well as see a lot of butterflies, the nature guided walks normally take about two to three hours a picnic can be done here as well as lunch in the forest canopies