Rubondo Island National Park is a

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

on an island in

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, with a size of .

Geography

Rubondo Island is located in the south-western corner of

. Rubondo Island is about west of

Mwanza Mwanza City, also known as Rock City to the residents, is a port city and capital of Mwanza Region on the southern shore of Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania. With an urban population of 1,104,521 and a population of 3,699,872 in the region ...

. The main island, Rubondo (2^o 18’ S, 31^o 50’ E) is 237 km² in size. The island protects another 11 islets, none much larger than 2 km².Briggs, P. (2006). ''Tanzania. Bradt Travel Guide'' 5th edition. Pages 231-239. These 10 islands form the Rubondo Island National Park covering an area of . Lake Victoria is 1,134 metres above sea level. The highest point on Rubondo is the Masa Hills in the far south, at an elevation of 1,486m (350m above the level of the lake). The main island measures 28 km from north to south and is 3–10 km wide. Rubondo Island is on a rift in the lake. Rubondo essentially consists of a partially submerged rift of four volcanically formed hills, linked by three flatter isthmuses. The island has no rivers and the soil is volcanic. The habitat is mixed evergreen and semideciduous forest, which covers about 80% of the island’s surface area with common species including '' Croton sylvaticus'', ''

Drypetes gerrardii ''Drypetes gerrardii'' is a species of small tree or large shrub in the family Putranjivaceae. Common names include forest ironplum, bastard white ironwood, and forest ironwood. It is native to tropical and subtropical central and eastern Africa. ...

'', and ''

Lecaniodiscus fraxinifolius ''Lecaniodiscus'' is a genus of plants in the family Sapindaceae The Sapindaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1,858 accepted species. Examp ...

'', and often with a dense understory of lianas, or woody vines.Moscovice, L.R., Issa, M.H., Petrzelkova, K.J., Keuler, N.S., Snowdon, C.T., Huffman, M.A. (2007). "Fruit Availability, Chimpanzee Diet, and Grouping Patters on Rubondo Island, Tanzania." ''American Journal of Primatology'', volume 69: 1-16. The forest is interspersed with patches of open grassland and, all but restricted to the Lukaya area, acacia woodland. The eastern lakeshore is characterised by rocky areas and sandy beaches whilst the western shore supports extensive papyrus swamps, lined with date palms.

Climate

There is a bimodal rainfall distribution, with peaks in December and April–May during the October–May rainy season. The annual temperature is 19–26 °C.Matsumoto-Oda, A. (2000). "Chimpanzees in the Rubondo Island National Park, Tanzania." ''Pan Africa News'' 7 (2).

History

Rubondo Island became a game reserve in 1965, to provide a sanctuary for animals. It was gazetted as a national park in 1977. Today Rubondo is uninhabited. Consequently, 80% of the island remains forested today. The 400 “fisher folk” of the Zinza tribe, who lived on the island and maintained banana plantations, were resettled on neighbouring islands and onto the mainland by the government in the late 1960s. Courts have passed sentences of six weeks imprisonment for unauthorised landings on the island and six months for attempted poaching.

Animal introductions

Over a four-year period (1966–1969) Professor

Bernhard Grzimek Bernhard Klemens Maria Hoffbauer Pius Grzimek (; 24 April 1909 – 13 March 1987) was a German zoo director, zoologist, book author, editor, and Animal Conservation, animal conservationist in postwar West Germany. During the Third Reich, he served ...

of the

Frankfurt Zoological Society The Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is an international conservation organization founded in 1858 with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. FZS focuses on maintaining biodiversity and conserving wildlife and ecosystems in protected area ...

(FZS) released 17 chimpanzees in four cohorts onto Rubondo Island. The first cohort of chimpanzees arrived in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

aboard the German African Line’s steamship Eibe Oldendorff on 17 June 1966 (Standard Newspaper Tanzania, 1966). The animals had no rehabilitation or pre-release training. The chimpanzees were all wild-born and purportedly of West African descent, although there are no records of specific country of origin for the majority of released individuals. The founder chimpanzees had spent varying periods, from 3.5 months to 9 years, in captivity in European zoos or circuses before their release. The chimpanzees after one year were able to find and eat wild foods and construct nests for sleeping, and have now reverted to an unhabituated state characteristic of wild chimpanzees. From 16 founders the population has now grown to around 40 individuals (estimate based on nest counts). In addition to

chimpanzees The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the ...

, seven other species were introduced to the island: Roan antelope (''Hippotragus equinus'') and

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

(''Diceros bicornis'') both now extinct, Suni antelope (''Neotragus moschatus''), elephants (Loxodonta africana),

giraffes The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa.'' It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant re ...

(Giraffa camelopardalis),

black-and-white colobus Black-and-white colobuses (or colobi) are Old World monkeys of the genus ''Colobus'', native to Africa. They are closely related to the red colobus monkeys of genus '' Piliocolobus''. There are five species of this monkey, and at least eight subs ...

monkeys (''Colobus guereza''), and grey parrots (''Psittacus erithacus'') confiscated from illegal trade. Common native fauna include the

vervet monkey The vervet monkey (''Chlorocebus pygerythrus''), or simply vervet, is an Old World monkey of the family Cercopithecidae native to Africa. The term "vervet" is also used to refer to all the members of the genus '' Chlorocebus''. The five distin ...

(''Chlorocebus aethiops''),

sitatunga The sitatunga (''Tragelaphus spekii'') or marshbuck is a swamp-dwelling medium-sized antelope found throughout central Africa, centering on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, parts of South Sudan, Southern ...

(''Tragelaphus spekei''),

hippopotamus The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Sahar ...

, genet and

bushbuck Bushbuck is a common name that may refer to one of the following African antelopes: *Cape bushbuck The Cape bushbuck (''Tragelaphus sylvaticus''), also known as imbabala is a common, medium-sized bushland-dwelling, and a widespread species of ant ...

(''Tragelaphus scriptus''). In October 2021, Prime Minister,

Kassim Majaliwa Kassim Majaliwa Majaliwa (born 22 December 1960) is a Tanzanian politician who has been the Prime Minister of Tanzania since 2015. He was appointed by President John Magufuli after the 2015 general election. He is a member of the ruling Chama ...

visited the park and ordered TANAPA to cooperate with tourism stakeholders, for the marketing of the Rubondo Island to maximise the numbers of tourist in Geita region.

References

{{authority control Islands of Tanzania National parks of Tanzania Lake Victoria Protected areas established in 1965 1965 establishments in Tanzania Tourist attractions in the Mwanza Region Important Bird Areas of Tanzania Central Zambezian miombo woodlands