NYUNGWE FOREST NATIONAL PARK
This magnificent national park covers an area of almost 1000 square kilometers in the mountainous southern parts of Rwanda. With a bit of luck you can here spot chimpanzees as well as a number of other primates and birds and spend days hiking on forest trails of various lengths and levels of difficulty.
This mountainous national park is the biggest single area of montane forest in East and Central Africa. It hosts an amazing diversity of both mammals, birds and plants – 86 mammal species, 120 butterfly species, 280 birds and close to 200 orchids. Nuyngwe has been protected as a forest reserve since 1933.
The main attraction during a visit to Nyungwe are the primates and in specific the chimpanzees. 13 primates are found here including the common chimpanzee and eight types of monkey and the Ruwenzori colobus. Leopard are still present although not many and there are a number of smaller predators living in the forest such as golden cat, wild cat, serval, side striped jackal and a few types of mongoose.
The forest consists of more than 200 tree species including some magnificent tracts of African mahogany, Mulanje Cedar, newtonia and albizia. There are also large areas of bamboo forest at higher altitudes.
The forestry department and Rwanda tourism board maintains a number of very well kept and interesting trails of various lengths and levels of difficulty which is a delightful and pleasant activity. These activities do although require a reasonably good level of physical fitness.
