Baboon on site.

In the Budongo Forest Reserve

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Baboon on site.
My bedroom in the Budongo Forest, where I face the trees, bats, bush bucks and other creatures through the night.
Fig tree on Budongo Forest Reserve attracts blue monkeys and other primates and birds.
Baboons on the grounds of the Budongo Forest Reserve with our dining hall in the background.

I have seen more non-human primates on The Budongo Forest Reserve here in northwestern Uganda than humans so far with Baboons, Black and White Colobus monkeys and Blue monkeys and even a group of about 10 very boisterous chimps visiting early one morning.

Budongo has what brings many people to a home: good food. Figs and nut trees cover the grounds here and attract all sorts of birds and mammals.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of humans, too. This is the largest remaining tropical forest in Africa, and had been a field station doing research, training and conservation for more than 20 years. It started as a logging station.

Nowadays, students from Makerere University do research while international students from Poland, France and Great Britain are working on Masters degrees and a post doc on chimp vocalizations.

Our group of seven all happen to be teachers, curious ones who are eager to get out into the forest to look at plants, birds and mammals.