“African mountain gorillas have a very small range which extends over three countries: Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC. All three countries offer amazing gorilla trekking experiences, but there are differences. Uganda is most developed for tourism and has the most to offer in addition to gorilla trekking. You can do a safari in Uganda that covers several savannah wildlife reserves, chimp trekking and gorilla trekking. Rwanda, with its turbulent past, offers a similar experience but the cost for gorilla trekking is much higher. However, tourism is less developed away from Volcanoes National Park, the base for gorilla trekking. The DRC also offers great gorilla trekking but has been politically unstable for a long time. Virunga National Park is mostly visited from Rwanda as a quick visit across the border, but it will take time for the park to re-establish itself after the region’s past conflict. The price for gorilla trekking in Uganda is US$700, in Rwanda US$1500 and in the DRC US$400.”
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is most sought of when it comes to mountain gorillas, the phenomenal national park is home to half population of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, these live within the forest with freedom to roam in the natural ecosystem, Bwindi is situated in the western part of the country, it is one of the few places to find the primate species, they are the world’s largest primates led by a male silverback, the national park was gazette as a protected conservation area in the 1993 and declared a UNESCO world heritage site by the 1994 as a way of protecting the critically endangered species, it covers an area space of approximately 321 square kilometers towards the edge of the rift valley, offering an ultimate gorilla experience.
The Bwindi forest is one of Uganda’s most biodiverse tropical rainforests dating back to over 25 million years ago, it is bisected into four sectors the Nkuringo, Buhoma, Ruhija and the Rushaga sector, each of these has got habituated gorilla families to track the Mubare gorilla group was the very 1st family to be habituated and made to get used to human presence in the1993 in the Buhoma sector mountain gorilla species live freely within the ecosystem without being captivated they live in families of up to 20 members, baby gorillas live under the care of their parents until the age of 2 years old, they mostly nest on the ground hence a gorilla population census can be done by how many nests have been built, they feed in different locations allowing food to regrow mostly the plants, leaves, mushrooms.
The impenetrable forest contains thick tree canopies an undergrowth consisting mostly fans and climbing plants these act as homes to not only thee mountain gorillas but also other species like the black and white colobus monkeys, L’hoest monkeys, forest elephants, mountain duikers over 350 species of birds have been recorded here to date with endemics of the albertine, some are restricted to specific areas like the African green broadbill in the Ruhija sector, despite the many animals being present in the national park they are rare to see, in the past few years the group of the last remaining population of the short structured people resided in the forest with other creatures amicably! All these existing in one environment presents a chance to do several tourism activities the number one is the,
Gorilla trekking takes place from the park headquarters within which one has bought their gorilla permits, park rangers will brief you in how to conduct yourself while with the gorillas, based on the gorilla rules and regulations tracking through the highland area is amazing however you will need to consider being physically fit as the terrain can mean to be tough, the trek takes 2 -8 hours or even the entire day depending on how far the gorilla families have moved, Gorilla habituation in relation to the trekking is done all day, on this one travelers can choose to have a gorilla doctor of board, the hike is basically to follow a gorilla group that has not been fully habituated.
