Primate Watching in Tanzania
Looking for Tanzania’s other primates alongside the chimpanzees: colobus, blue and vervet monkeys, baboon, bushbaby and the Eastern Arc endemics of the Udzungwas and Zanzibar.
Primate watching in Tanzania covers everything except the chimpanzees: colobus, mangabey, kipunji, blue monkey, vervet, baboon and the nocturnal galagos. Most of it is opportunistic and happens without planning, but the serious end is internationally significant. The Udzungwa Mountains hold two monkeys found nowhere else, a genus described only in 2004, and six species of bushbaby. This guide covers which primates occur where, how forest primates are actually found, and the three rules that apply to every encounter.
Safaris That Include Primate Watching
4 Days Mahale Mountains Chimpanzee Safari Tanzania
by Insight Safari Holidays Verified operator
a 13 Day Tanzanian Birding Expedition
by Wild Whispers Africa Verified operator
8 Days Chimpanzee Trekking in Tanzania
by Insight Safari Holidays Verified operator
A Guide to Primate Watching in Tanzania
What primate watching in Tanzania covers
Primate watching here means everything except the chimpanzees: colobus, mangabey, kipunji, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, vervet, baboon and the nocturnal galagos. Chimpanzee trekking is a separate activity with its own permits, its own parks and its own strict viewing rules, and it is covered in the chimpanzee trekking guide.
The distinction matters because the two experiences have almost nothing in common. Chimpanzee trekking is a booked, regulated hour with one habituated community. Primate watching is opportunistic, unregulated, usually free, and happens from a vehicle, on a forest walk or from a camp veranda. Some of it is casual and some of it is among the most significant wildlife watching available anywhere.
The casual end is unavoidable on any safari. Baboons on the road, vervets in the camp trees, blue monkeys in riverine forest. The serious end requires going somewhere specific, and that somewhere is almost always a forest rather than a savanna park.
The Udzungwa Mountains
The Udzungwa Mountains are the reason primate watching in Tanzania is internationally significant, and published assessments describe the range as one of the most important areas in Africa for primate diversity and conservation.
Two monkeys occur here and nowhere else. The Udzungwa red colobus, also known as the Uzungwa or Iringa red colobus, is restricted to forest in these mountains. The Sanje mangabey was unknown to biologists before 1979, which is an extraordinary thing to be able to write about a large, conspicuous, group-living monkey.
The kipunji is more remarkable still. Found in the Udzungwa in 2003 and described in 2004, it was placed in a new genus, Rungwecebus — the first new African monkey genus described in decades. It is near-endemic, occurring in the Udzungwa and on Mount Rungwe in the Southern Highlands, and it is difficult to see.
The Udzungwa is also exceptional for nocturnal primates, with six species of galago recorded, which is a density of bushbaby diversity that few places on the continent match.
Udzungwa Mountains National Park is walked, not driven. There is no game-drive road network, and the primates are found on forest trails, often by following the noise. The park pairs with the Sanje waterfalls and the Eastern Arc endemic birds described in the bird watching guide, and it slots into a southern circuit trip between Mikumi and Ruaha.
The colobus monkeys
Colobus are the leaf-eating specialists and the most photogenic primates in the country, and Tanzania has several distinct kinds.
Black and white colobus are the ones with the long white mantle and the flowing tail, and they occur in montane forest across the north. TANAPA's own assessment is that Arusha National Park is probably the best place in Tanzania to watch them, and that the loud, guttural territorial calls echoing through the forests are as much a part of the experience as the sightings. They leap between crowns with the mantle streaming, which is the image everyone comes away with. Arusha is an easy half-day from the town and from Kilimanjaro airport, which makes this the most accessible serious primate watching on the northern circuit.
Red colobus are more varied and more localised. The Udzungwa red colobus is confined to its mountains. A different red colobus occurs in the western forests at Gombe and Mahale on Lake Tanganyika. And the Zanzibar red colobus, endemic to Unguja, is the one most visitors actually encounter, at Jozani in the island's interior, where a habituated population sits at close range beside the forest path. For travellers already going to the coast it is the easiest close primate encounter in Tanzania.
Angolan colobus occur at Mahale, which holds six monkey species alongside its chimpanzees: yellow baboon, vervet, blue, red-tailed, Angolan colobus and red colobus.
Baboons, and why they are worth watching
Baboons are dismissed by almost everyone on a first safari and are among the most interesting animals in the country to watch for an hour. Tanzania has olive baboon in the west and north, and yellow baboon through the south and east.
The interest is social. A troop is a visible political structure: coalitions, grooming as currency, consort relationships, juvenile play that is also rank negotiation, and a running commentary of gestures and vocalisations that can be read in real time once a guide points out what to look for. The primatological literature on baboon society is enormous precisely because it is so legible from outside.
TANAPA describes Lake Manyara as holding reputedly the largest baboon troops in Africa, and a Manyara troop working the roadside in the groundwater forest is a genuinely impressive piece of theatre. Gombe's olive baboons are themselves the subject of a decades-long research record alongside the chimpanzees.
Baboons are also the primate most likely to cause a problem. They are strong, bold and quick, they raid camps and vehicles, and a baboon that has learned to associate people with food is a dangerous animal rather than a charming one.
Blue monkey, vervet and red-tailed monkey
Blue monkey are forest animals, dark and quiet, found in riverine and montane forest across much of the country including Lake Manyara's groundwater forest, Arusha National Park, Gombe and Mahale. They are heard more than seen and are far less bold than vervets.
Vervet monkey are the small grey monkeys with black faces that occur almost everywhere, including Rubondo Island, Saadani and every camp with trees. Their alarm-call system is one of the best-documented in animal behaviour, with different calls for different classes of predator, and a guide can often demonstrate it from a vehicle when something passes.
Red-tailed monkey occur in the western forests at Gombe and Mahale, recognisable by the white nose patch. Gombe holds eight primate species in a park of fifty-two square kilometres: chimpanzee, olive baboon, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, vervet, red colobus and bushbabies among them, which is a remarkable concentration for so small an area.
The nocturnal primates
Galagos, universally called bushbabies, are the primates most people hear and never see. The screaming call that carries across a camp at night is usually theirs, and the eyes reflecting from high in a tree in a spotlight beam are almost certainly one.
They are properly seen on a night drive, where the reflective layer behind the eye picks up the spotlight at a considerable distance and the animals' leaping between branches gives them away. They also come readily to trees around camps and lodges, and a torch swept across the canopy after dinner frequently finds them. The night game drive guide covers where night driving is permitted.
Species identification is genuinely difficult and is mostly done on call rather than appearance, which is part of why the Udzungwa's six galago species went unrecognised for so long.
Where primate watching fits in a trip
For most travellers it is an add-on rather than a trip. A northern circuit delivers baboon, vervet and blue monkey without any planning, and half a day in Arusha National Park adds black and white colobus properly.
A southern circuit that includes two nights at Udzungwa turns an incidental interest into a serious one, and Udzungwa is easy to reach from the road between Mikumi and Iringa.
The western parks combine chimpanzees with the richest monkey communities in the country, so a Gombe or Mahale trip is a primate trip whether or not it is planned as one.
A coast or island stay puts the Zanzibar red colobus within reach of an afternoon.
Forest primates are found by walking and by listening, not by driving. A guide who stops the vehicle, switches off and waits will find them; one who keeps moving will not.
Behaviour, disease and food
Three things apply to every primate encounter and are worth stating.
Never feed a monkey. It teaches the animal to approach people, which ends with the animal being destroyed or a visitor being bitten. A primate bite is a serious medical event requiring prompt attention and, depending on circumstances, rabies prophylaxis.
Secure food and belongings. Baboons and vervets open zips, doors and tent flaps, and they will take food out of a hand. Camps in baboon country ask visitors to keep tents closed for exactly this reason, and the request is not decorative.
Keep distance and stay well if you are not. Primates share enough physiology with humans to share diseases in both directions. The strict rules that govern chimpanzee viewing exist because human respiratory infections have killed them, and while monkeys are not subject to the same formal regime, the biology is not different in kind. Anyone with a respiratory infection should keep back.
Direct eye contact and bared teeth are threat signals to most primates, which is why a smiling tourist leaning towards a baboon occasionally gets a reaction they did not expect.
Common questions about primate watching
Where is the best primate watching in Tanzania?
The Udzungwa Mountains, on any serious assessment: two endemic monkeys, a near-endemic kipunji, six galago species and a standing as one of Africa's most important primate areas. For accessibility rather than significance, Arusha National Park for black and white colobus and Jozani on Unguja for Zanzibar red colobus.
Is primate watching the same as chimpanzee trekking?
No. Chimpanzee trekking is a permitted, time-limited activity at Mahale, Gombe and Rubondo with strict viewing rules. Primate watching covers the monkeys and galagos, is largely opportunistic, and happens on ordinary game drives and forest walks.
Is a permit needed?
Not for general monkey watching, which happens within normal park entry. Forest parks such as Udzungwa are walked with a guide arranged at the gate.
Can the kipunji be seen?
Rarely, and not on a casual visit. It occurs in the Udzungwa and on Mount Rungwe, lives high in forest canopy, and is difficult even for researchers. A trip planned around seeing it is a trip that should expect not to.
Are the monkeys dangerous?
Baboons deserve respect, particularly where they have learned to associate people with food. They are strong and fast, they will raid a vehicle or a tent, and a bite is a serious matter. The solution is never to feed them and to keep food and bags secured.
What is the best way to see forest primates?
On foot, slowly, with a guide who is listening. Colobus and blue monkeys are usually located by sound: the guttural call of colobus, the crash of a leap, or the rain of dropped fruit fragments from the canopy.
When is the best time of year?
Forest primates are present year-round and are not seasonal in the way that the plains herds are. Fruiting seasons concentrate them, and the drier months make forest trails easier to walk without changing what is there. The forest parks of the west and south dry out later and for longer than the northern circuit does, which is set out in the two rainfall regimes the country runs.