Sunday, July 6th

This morning we went tracking for chimpanzees in the Kazinga Gorge in the rift valley with our guides, Nelson and Lawrence. Here you can see the view of the gorge from almost 100 meters above the rift valley. The walk was extremely long lasting a little over three hours, and we spotted our first chimpanzee more than two hours in. During the entire walk we saw two chimpanzees and a couple of various different species of monkeys, which was disappointing for me but apparently we were extremely lucky to have seen any chimpanzees at all in their natural habitat. Here in the next photo you can see one of the chimpanzees we spotted this morning. It was eating near the water when we first spotted it, and Nelson told us that he is approximately 16 years old. Although it got really hot and tiring during the walk, I realize now that it was an amazing experience to have trekked through the Kazinga Gorge in the natural habitat of the chimpanzees. Nelson told us that because humans have recently been destroying the habitats of these apes for agriculture, it has increasingly become difficult for these chimpanzees to mate and reproduce. It made me realize the seriousness of the issues concerning the habitat loss of endangered animals.

After the walk in the morning we went on a boat cruise in the Kazinga Channel between Lake Edwards and Lake George in the afternoon to see the different wildlife in the river valley. We saw buffalos, hippos, elephants, water bucks, bush bucks, and an alligator. It was really interesting to see these animals in their natural habitat from so close. In this picture the elephants are drinking water and washing themselves. It was really interesting to see these animals doing their natural