“In 1960 Jane Goodall watched chimpanzees here make and use tools, a discovery that shattered the idea that toolmaking was uniquely human.”
About Gombe Stream National Park
Jane Goodall began her chimpanzee research at Gombe in 1960 under the mentorship of palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Her observations, including tool use and complex social behaviour, revolutionised primatology and challenged definitions of humanity. The study continues to this day as one of the longest-running wildlife research projects in the world, and the area was made a national park to protect its chimpanzees.
Gombe Stream is the smallest national park in Tanzania, a narrow strip of forested hills running down to the shore of Lake Tanganyika in the far west of the country. Tiny though it is, it is world-famous as the place where Jane Goodall began her pioneering study of wild chimpanzees, research that transformed our understanding of our closest relatives.
Gombe Stream is the smallest national park in Tanzania, a narrow strip of forested hills running down to the shore of Lake Tanganyika in the far west of the country.
Where Jane Goodall Changed Science
In 1960, a young Jane Goodall arrived at Gombe and began observing its chimpanzees, eventually documenting behaviours that stunned the scientific world, including chimps making and using tools, which had been thought uniquely human. Her decades of work here, the longest-running study of wild chimpanzees ever, redrew the line between humans and animals. The park protects the descendants of the very chimps she studied, still tracked by researchers today.
The Experience
You reach Gombe only by boat across Lake Tanganyika, then trek up steep, humid forest trails with guides to find the habituated chimpanzee groups. Watching them feed, groom and interact at close range, in the forest where Goodall worked, is profoundly moving. The park also has other primates, waterfalls and the lake itself for swimming after the trek.
Why It Matters
Gombe is hallowed ground in the history of science, the birthplace of modern chimpanzee research and a symbol of Jane Goodall's life work. For travellers, it offers one of the most intimate and meaningful wildlife encounters in Africa, tracking great apes in the forest that changed how we see ourselves.
Gombe is hallowed ground in the history of science, the birthplace of modern chimpanzee research and a symbol of Jane Goodall's life work.
Why Visit
Close encounters with wild chimpanzees in the forest where Jane Goodall began her landmark research, a remote and deeply meaningful experience on Lake Tanganyika.
✦ Insider Tips
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Gombe is reached only by boat across Lake Tanganyika.
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Chimp trekking involves steep, sometimes strenuous forest hikes.
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Permits are required and group sizes limited to protect the chimps.
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Combine it with a swim or relaxing on the lakeshore after the trek.
