# Gombe National Park > A narrow strip of forest above Lake Tanganyika where Jane Goodall changed what we know about ourselves. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/gombe Edited by: Kabeer Dalvi (https://seeyoutanzania.com/about) ## At a glance - **Managed by:** TANAPA - **Area:** 56 km² - **Established:** 1968 - **Region:** Kigoma Region - **Best time:** Late June–October ## The park Gombe is tiny — a strip of steep valleys and forest running up from the lakeshore north of Kigoma — and it is one of the most consequential pieces of ground in the history of biology. **Jane Goodall** began observing chimpanzees here in **1960**, and within months had recorded them stripping leaves from twigs to fish termites from a mound. Until then, toolmaking was held to be what separated humans from animals. Louis Leakey's response on receiving her telegram is quoted so often precisely because it was the right reaction: *now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as human.* Goodall went on to document hunting, warfare between communities, and long-term social bonds — and the research at Gombe has continued without interruption ever since, making it one of the longest-running studies of wild animals anywhere. For visitors it is a steep walk in humid forest to find the habituated community, under the same health rules that apply at Mahale. The park is reached by boat from Kigoma, and most people combine it with the ferry up Lake Tanganyika or a visit to Ujiji, where Stanley is said to have met Livingstone. ## Wildlife - Eastern chimpanzee - Olive baboon - Red colobus - Red-tailed monkey - Blue monkey - Bushbuck ## What to do ### Chimpanzee tracking Steep, humid, and in the place where chimpanzee research began. ### The Kasekela community Continuously studied since 1960 — among the longest records of any wild animal population. ### Gombe Stream Research Centre Founded in 1967, and still running the study. ### Lake Tanganyika beaches Clear water directly below the forest. ## Getting there By boat from Kigoma, two to three hours by water taxi or charter; there is no road. Kigoma has scheduled flights from Dar es Salaam. ## A strip of forest on the lake Gombe is one of the smallest of Tanzania's national parks, and one of the most famous. It is a narrow strip of the eastern shore of **Lake Tanganyika**, north of Kigoma, running from the beach up steep valleys to the ridge of the rift escarpment. TANAPA gives its area as **56 km²**. That is 35.7 km² of land and, since 2015, 20.7 km² of the lake. The forest in the valleys is thick and evergreen, with grassland and woodland on the ridges above. It was declared a **game reserve in 1943**, and made a **national park in 1968**. By then Jane Goodall's research had made it famous around the world. Streams run down every valley to the lake. The **Kakombe** and **Mkenke** streams fall over rock into pools in the forest, and TANAPA says the park has more than **45 km of trails**. ## Jane Goodall's chimpanzees **Jane Goodall** arrived at Gombe on **14 July 1960**, aged 26, with no degree. She had been sent by the palaeontologist **Louis Leakey**, who thought wild apes might show how early humans behaved. The chief warden would only let her stay if someone came with her, so her mother came too. In **November 1960** she watched a chimpanzee she had named **David Greybeard** poke grass stems into a termite mound and pull them out covered in termites. She later saw chimpanzees strip the leaves off twigs to make them work better, which is making a tool. At the time, toolmaking was held to be what set humans apart. Leakey wrote back: *"Now we must redefine 'tool', redefine 'man', or accept chimpanzees as humans."* She also saw chimpanzees hunt and eat meat, when they had been thought to be vegetarian. She gave the chimpanzees names instead of numbers, and described their personalities, their hugs and kisses, and bonds between mothers and offspring that lasted a lifetime. She also saw their darker side. In the early 1970s the Kasekela community split. From **1974**, over about four years, its males killed the males of the breakaway **Kahama** group one by one. It was the first time male chimpanzees had been seen deliberately trying to kill another male. The conflict became known as the "Four-Year War". At first Goodall attracted the chimpanzees with bananas at a feeding station. She later said she would not do it now, because at the time nobody knew chimpanzees could catch human diseases. The **Gombe Stream Research Centre** was set up in **1967**, and the **Jane Goodall Institute** in **1977**. The institute still funds the study, and its Tanzanian field staff collect data the same way it was collected in the early 1970s. It is one of the longest continuous studies of any wild animal. Jane Goodall died on **1 October 2025**, aged 91. ## The chimpanzees today There are three communities in the park. **Kasekela**, in the middle, is the one Goodall studied, and has had between 39 and 62 members over more than fifty years. **Mitumba**, in the north, has been habituated since 1996 and numbers about 25. **Kalande**, in the south, has collapsed: at least 19 chimpanzees in 2002, and only 5 by 2020. In all, the park held **89 to 92 chimpanzees** between 2002 and 2020, down from an estimated **120 to 150** in the 1960s. Two things are to blame. The first is **disease**. A study of 47 years of records found that illness caused more than half the deaths whose cause was known, mostly respiratory disease in epidemics. Gombe's chimpanzees also carry **SIVcpz**, the ape virus from which HIV-1 came. A 2009 study in *Nature* showed that it causes an AIDS-like illness in chimpanzees, with a death risk 10 to 16 times higher for infected animals. The second is **isolation**. Outside the park, the forest has been cleared for farms. The rate of clearing in land important to chimpanzees doubled, from 87.5 hectares a year in 1972–1991 to 171 hectares a year in 1991–2003. The Jane Goodall Institute's **TACARE** programme, begun in 1994, worked with villages on tree-planting and health. From 2005, 13 villages set aside a quarter of their land, about 97 km² by 2009, as **village forest reserves**. That is 2.7 times the land area of the park, and chimpanzees still use it. The viewing rules are the same as at [Mahale](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/mahale-mountains): keep at least **10 metres** away, wear a mask within 50 metres, do not eat or drink near the chimpanzees, stay away if you are ill, no visitors under **12**, no more than **six visitors** and a guide at a time, and **one hour** at most. ## Tracking, the lake and the rest of the forest **Chimpanzee tracking.** You walk with a guide from the shore up into the valleys to find the habituated chimpanzees, which can mean a steep, humid climb. TANAPA recommends staying **two nights** to see them properly, though a day trip from Kigoma is possible. **Other animals.** TANAPA counts eight primate species: chimpanzees, olive baboons, red colobus, red-tailed, blue and vervet monkeys, and bushbabies. Red-tailed and blue monkeys interbreed here. The baboons are often on the beach. TANAPA lists 35 mammal species, including bushbuck, bushpig, duiker, civets and the chequered elephant-shrew. Its brochure gives two different bird counts, 287 species on one page and "over 200" on another; it names the fish eagle, palm-nut vulture, paradise flycatcher, Schalow's turaco and Peters's twinspot. Migrant birds are present from November to April. **The lake and the falls.** You can swim, snorkel, kayak and fish in Lake Tanganyika, the longest freshwater lake in the world. You can walk to the **Kakombe** waterfall, and the trails climb to the ridge above the lake. **Outside the park.** TANAPA suggests a visit to the Mwamgongo women's group, just outside the park, for crafts and traditional dance. Most people also visit [Kigoma](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kigoma) and **Ujiji**, where Stanley found Livingstone in 1871. ## Getting in, what it costs, and when to go **Getting there.** There is **no road** to Gombe. You go by boat from [Kigoma](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kigoma), two to three hours by local water taxi or by chartered boat, according to TANAPA. Kigoma has scheduled flights from Dar es Salaam. **Fees.** Gombe is the most expensive national park in Tanzania: **USD 100 per non-East African adult per day**, all year, USD 20 for children aged 5 to 15 and TZS 10,000 for East African citizens, all **before 18 per cent VAT**, so USD 118 in practice. Staying in a camp or lodge inside the park adds USD 30 per night. Boat trips are USD 20, snorkelling USD 10, sport fishing USD 25 a day, and a park guide USD 20 per group per day. **Staying.** TANAPA's tariff lists its own options inside the park. The **Kasekela** tented camp costs USD 50 per person sharing, or USD 60 for a suite. The **Jane Goodall Memorial House** costs USD 35, and the rest house USD 20. There is also a hostel for organised groups, public campsites at USD 30 per person, and a special campsite at Kasekela at USD 50. There are other rest houses at Mitumba and at the visitor centre. **When to go.** There are two rainy seasons: short rains in **November and December**, and long rains from **March to May**. TANAPA gives the dry seasons as **late June to October** and **January to early March**. TANAPA gives temperatures of 18–26 °C. Note: Fees are from TANAPA's own 2023/24 tariff schedule, the most recent it has published, and are quoted before 18 per cent VAT. They may have gone up since, so check them before you budget. ## Common questions ### Can you still see Jane Goodall's chimpanzees at Gombe? Yes. The Kasekela community she began studying in 1960 still lives in the park, and visitors track it and the neighbouring Mitumba community with a guide. Goodall died on 1 October 2025, but the study continues. ### How many chimpanzees live in Gombe? About 90. The park held 89 to 92 chimpanzees between 2002 and 2020, in three communities, down from an estimated 120 to 150 in the 1960s. Disease and the clearing of forest outside the park are the main reasons. ### How do you get to Gombe National Park? By boat from Kigoma, which takes two to three hours by local water taxi or chartered boat. There is no road to the park. Kigoma has scheduled flights from Dar es Salaam. ### How much does it cost to visit Gombe? TANAPA's 2023/24 schedule sets USD 100 per non-East African adult per day, before 18 per cent VAT, so USD 118 in practice. That is the highest of any national park in Tanzania. Children aged 5 to 15 pay USD 20. Accommodation, boats and guides are extra. ### Can you do Gombe as a day trip? Yes. TANAPA says you can go and come back to Kigoma in one day. It recommends two nights, though, because the chimpanzees can take time to find. ### When is the best time to visit Gombe? The dry seasons, late June to October and January to early March. The short rains fall in November and December and the long rains from March to May. ### Are children allowed to see the chimpanzees? No one under 12 may visit the chimpanzees. Children can still come to the park, swim in the lake and walk to the waterfall. ## Checked against - [Gombe National Park — official page](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/nationalparks/gombe), TANAPA - [Tanzania National Parks Tariffs 2023/2024 — schedule to GN No. 490A of 2020](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/publications/en-1688147569-TARIFFS%20Design%20202324.pdf), TANAPA - [Gombe National Park — official park brochure](https://www.tanzaniaparks.go.tz/uploads/GOMBE_NP_00c36c8502.pdf), TANAPA - [Research and conservation in the Greater Gombe Ecosystem: challenges and opportunities (2020)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108853), Biological Conservation - [Increased mortality and AIDS-like immunopathology in wild chimpanzees infected with SIVcpz (2009)](https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08200), Nature - [Causes of death in the Kasekela chimpanzees of Gombe National Park (2008)](https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.20573), American Journal of Primatology - [Impact of simian immunodeficiency virus infection on chimpanzee population dynamics (2010)](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001116), PLoS Pathogens - [Tool making — David Greybeard and Leakey's reply](https://wiki.janegoodall.org/wiki/Tool_Making), Jane Goodall Institute - [Jane Goodall — arrival in 1960, feeding stations, death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall), Wikipedia - [The Gombe Chimpanzee War, 1974–1978](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War), Wikipedia - [Gombe National Park — primates, research centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_National_Park), Wikipedia ## Related - [All the parks](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks)