The Western Wildlife Research Centre is located in western Tanzania along the Lake Tanganyika shore in the Bangwe area within Kigoma-Ujiji Municipality. Wildlife research activities in western Tanzania, particularly the Mahale Mountains, were started in 1965 by a Japanese researcher, Nishida. This researcher was under the supervision of Professor Itani from Kyoto University, Japan.

This center was established by the Wildlife Division in 1975 as the Kasoge Chimpanzee Research Station to conserve chimpanzees in Kasoge Forest and Mahale Mountain. However, the station was handed over to the Serengeti Wildlife Research Institute in 1980 as one of the five research centers named Mahale-Gombe Wildlife Research Centres. In 2023 the center was merged into the Western Wildlife Research Centre by Government Notice No. 260 (GN 260), to reflect its broader mandate of supporting wildlife research across Tanzania’s western zone.

The center’s primary responsibilities include conducting wildlife research in Western Tanzania, understanding chimpanzees’ behavior and ecology, addressing wildlife conservation challenges, promoting chimpanzees as a tourist attraction, and overseeing wildlife research conducted in Western Tanzania.