Gombe National Park () is a national park in Tanzania, located in the Kigoma District of the Kigoma Region. It was formerly called Gombe Stream National Park.
Overview
Established in 1968, it is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys, and the vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest. Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioural research on the common chimpanzee populations.
Wildlife
Gombe National Park encompasses grasslands, woodlands, steep valleys and tropical rainforest; it boasts one of the highest concentrations of primates in Africa.
Chimpanzees share a habitat with several other primate species, beachcomber olive baboons, red colobus, red-tailed monkey, blue monkey and vervet monkey. Red-tailed monkeys and blue monkeys are known to hybridize in the area.
The leopard is one of the primary predators of chimpanzees, other primates and bushpigs. The chimps would also take twigs from trees and strip off the leaves to make the twig more effective, a form of object modification which is the rudimentary beginnings of toolmaking.
thumb|Hunting chimpanzee with prey
In contrast to the peaceful and affectionate behaviours she observed, Goodall also found an aggressive side of chimp nature at Gombe. She discovered that chimps will systematically hunt and eat smaller primates, such as red colobus. This long-term data has provided scientists with insight into chimpanzee demographic patterns, male politics, hunting, culture and mother-infant relationships over multiple generations—rare and valuable data. The research of Goodall has also drastically changed ethological thinking and how behavioural studies are conducted. Where once talk of animal emotion was dismissed as anthropomorphism, her observations of animals in their natural habitat show that societies, behaviour, and relationships between animals are quite complex.
Conservation
The biodiversity of Gombe National Park is primarily threatened by human encroachment. This is mainly due to the lack of collaboration between park management, government sectors, and rural communities.