Mahale Mountains National Park lies 120 km south of Kigoma town, on a peninsula in Lake Tanganyika on the western border of Tanzania. The park has an area of 1613 sq km and is dominated by the Mahale Mountains Chain running from north-west to south-east across the middle of the park, the highest peak, Mount Nkungwe, rising 2,462 meters above sea level.

Mahale Mountains National Park contains at least world’s largest protected population (approx. 700-1000) of the eastern subspecies of Chimpanzee.

The area contains at least 337 birds species , many of which are rare and endemic to the Albertine Rift. Eg Pel’s fishing owl.

One of the unusual things about mahale is the wide variety of habitat types that it contains. The park is a mosaic of overlapping rainforest, woodland, bamboo forest, Montane forest and mountain grasslands, meaning that mahale can support a unique mix of flora and fauna that rely on the various different habitats.

Mahale contains 8 (Possibly 9) primates in addition to chimps; these are yellow baboons, blue monkeys, red colobus, pied colobus, and vervet monkeys two or three species of Galago.