Kyambura Game Reserve- Travel Tips

What to See, How to Plan & Tours

Kyambura Game Reserve, also known as Chambura Wildlife Reserve, is a 156-square-kilometer protected area located on the northeastern edge of Uganda's Queen Elizabeth National Park. Established as a hunting area in 1962 and upgraded to game reserve status in 1965, it now serves as a critical buffer zone within the Queen Elizabeth Protected Area (QEPA), which borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Virunga National Park. The reserve is geographically defined by its dramatic 16-kilometer-long Kyambura Gorge, a deep trench carved into the savanna, sheltering a dense riverine forest along the Kyambura River. This gorge is one of the few remaining habitats in Uganda where visitors can track habituated chimpanzees. Due to past deforestation, the gorge's primate population, including red-tailed monkeys, baboons, and colobus monkeys, has become ecologically isolated. Kyambura also supports a diverse bird community, with species adapted to both forest and savanna environments. The gorge's unique topography and biodiversity make it a significant site for both conservation and research, particularly as wildlife corridors linking it to nearby forests have been disrupted, raising concerns about long-term genetic viability among the chimpanzee population.