Mountain Gorillas with their counterparts fall under Primates and are the world’s largest of the Primates. They are members of the great Apes with others being the Chimpanzees and the Orangutans. The Mountain Gorillas live in structured groups with defined home ranges, groups range from 8-35 individuals composed of Silverbacks, young males (Black-backs), adult females and their offspring. The group is led by the dominant Silverback, they are called so because of a silver like patch/stripe that develops on their backs as they mature (at around the age of 12). The Silverback plays great role in the group such as; determining the family’s movements, feeding times and trips, resting/ nesting times and places and most importantly protecting its members and they can fight to death to ensure safety of their family. The Mountain Gorillas spend most of their time on the ground looking for food and feeding, nesting and playing in their home range/territory unlike other primate that spend most time in trees.
Conservation of Mountain Gorillas
There are over 1000 Mountain Gorillas remaining in the wilds, this indicates a steady increase in the number of these endangered creatures and positive conservation efforts, thanks to Dian Fossey who lit the candle of this noble cause (conservation) and popularizing this through her movie Gorillas in the Mist.
The Mountain Gorillas live in groups that are habituated.
Habituation is a process that is aimed at making these primates used to human presence; on this activity, researchers and habituators follow the Gorillas on their daily activities through the forest their by getting them used to human presence without altering their natural environment and behavior. Visitors to Gorilla parks have an opportunity to participate in the
Gorilla Habituation Experience that allows them more time to see and study the behavior of these Great Apes, this activity usually takes a full day where visitors follow researchers and habituators. On a usual/normal Gorilla tracking safari, visitors are only allowed one hour in the presence of the Gorillas once they are located.
Since the Gorillas are highly sensitive and threatened by human borne diseases, on tracking visitors are requested to leave a decent space of about 7m or 21ft from them to reduce the risk of contracting human diseases, regulations and guidelines are in place to track the Mountain Gorillas to ensure sustainable conservation efforts. Be part of the conservation as proceedings from your permit are directed to this noble cause. Tracking is one of the most humbling experiences you can ever have on your African safari.
Mountain Gorilla families in Uganda and Rwanda.
There are a number of Mountain Gorilla families that you will be able to track on one of your Gorilla safari in either Uganda or Rwanda;
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 13 Gorilla families available in the 4 sectors.
Nkuringo sector has two groups that is, Nkuringo family with 19 members including 12 Silverbacks, as well as Bushaho which is available for Habituation Experiences.
Ruhija sector has three families; Bitukura with 14 members including 4 Silverbacks, Oruzogo has 25 including 2 Silverbacks and Kyaguriro with 14 members and it’s only for research.
Rushaga sector has five groups; Bweza with 12 members including 2 Silverbacks, Nshongi has 36 members with 5 Silverbacks, Busingye has 7 including 1 Silverback, Kahungye with 13 individuals, Mishaya has 12members with 1 Silverback as well as Bikingi group which is also available for Hadituation Experiences for visitors.
Buhoma sector has three families; Rushegura with 18 members including 1 Silverback, Habinyanja has 15 including 2 Silverbacks, and Mubare has 9members with 1 Silverback.
Mgahinga National Park has one habituated trans-boundary Gorilla group the Nyakagezi with 10 members including 3 Silverback, the group crosses to the Volcanos National Park [PNV] in Rwanda and this therefore makes it hard to track. The group originated from Democratic Republic of Congo in Virunga National Park due to logging and deforestation activities in their habitat.
Rwanda’s Parc National des Volcans [PNV] is home to 10 habituated Gorilla families available to visitors and one group only for scientific research purposes. The families include Susa (susaA) has 33 members with 2 Silverbacks, Karisimbi (susa B)-16 members including 2 Silverbacks, Amahoro has 18 members including 2 Silverbacks, Umubano has 13 individuals including 2 Silverbacks, Sabinyo-13 members with 1Silverback, Kwitonda has 23 individuals including 4 Silverbacks, Agashya with 27 members including 1 Silverback, Hirwa-has16 with 1Silverback, Ugenda-11 members with 2 Silverbacks and Bwenge-11 members with 1Silverback.
This description gives you a picture of the Gorilla families in Uganda and Rwanda Gorilla reserves remember they are wild animals and therefore the group composition and numbers keep on changing due to a number of factors such as breakaway of members to join other groups, fights breakout between Silverbacks within the families for dominance which most times forces defeated ones to flee and form their own families among many other factors..
So if you plan to go for a gorilla tracking safari in Uganda or Rwanda, please contact our travel planner at atwholidaysafrica@gmail.com or Whats App +256773148649
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