The Bugoma Forest Reserve is in North-Western Uganda, on the Albertine Rift escarpment above lake Albert, which forms the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Forest Reserve itself is over 400km2 of dense secondary rainforest, with an incredibly diverse range of plants, insects, birds, and mammals. It is host to 8 primate species – including the northern most population of the Ugandan grey-cheeked mangabey, and one of the last unstudied populations of chimpanzees in East Africa.
The Bugoma Primate Conservation Project (formerly the Bugoma Chimpanzee Conservation Project) was established in 2015 by by Dr Thibaud Gruber (Universities of Oxford and Geneva) and Dr Cat Hobaiter (University of St Andrews). Together they have worked in Uganda for over 20-years, specialising in studies of primate communication and cognition.
For the past three years, the team has been working to habituate chimpanzees and mangabeys to human observation; our longterm goals include the conservation of the forest eco-system in collaboration with community stakeholders, behavioural and ecological research, and – in partnership with the National Forestry Authority – responsible eco-tourism.