Primate Cercopithecus ascanius
A small forest monkey with a white nose spot and a rust-red tail. At Gombe it shares the forest with chimpanzees, and sometimes with blue monkeys it has interbred with.
The red-tailed monkey is a West and Central African species that reaches the eastern edge of its range on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It is quick and nervous, and chimpanzees occasionally hunt it, so a troop will scatter when the chimps call.
Gombe is famous among primatologists for the red-tailed and blue monkeys that have hybridised in its valleys. For visitors it simply means more monkeys to watch on the walk to the chimpanzees.
Lakeshore and valley forest in Gombe National Park.
Guide’s tipRed-tailed monkeys travel below the canopy. Watch the middle layer of the forest, not the tops of the trees.
Sightings are never guaranteed: these are wild animals in wild places. What we can promise is a guide who knows where to look.
Destinations
The parks and reserves where our guides look for it, each with its own best season and safaris.
Clear lake, western forest birds and the gateway to Gombe and Mahale.
Track wild chimpanzees in the forests where Jane Goodall began her research.
Keep exploring
Loxodonta africana
Tarangire’s big herds are the classic sight: families drifting between baobabs to the river in the dry season.
Panthera leo
The Serengeti holds one of the largest lion populations left in Africa. Prides of twenty are not unusual.
Panthera pardus
Secretive and beautiful. The Seronera valley’s sausage trees are the best place in Africa to find one by day.
Acinonyx jubatus
Built for the short grass plains. Watch one scan from a termite mound in the southern Serengeti.
Diceros bicornis
Critically endangered and closely guarded. The Ngorongoro Crater is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see one.
Syncerus caffer
The Big Five’s heavyweight. Herds of several hundred are a daily sight in Arusha National Park and the crater.
Giraffa tippelskirchi
Tanzania’s national animal, with jagged star-shaped patches. Common almost everywhere except inside the crater.
Equus quagga
The migration’s other half. Hundreds of thousands of zebra move with the wildebeest across the Serengeti.
Tell us your dates and the birds or animals you most want to see. We’ll reply within 24 hours with a route and a full quote.
