Uganda Bwindi Park – New Mountain Gorilla Trekking Groups to Be Launched

Uganda is home to 14 species of primates, the best known, of course, the Mountain Gorillas, and several other species like chimpanzees and golden monkeys have also been habituated for easy access by tourists. Chimpanzee tracking can easily be done at several places across Uganda and even a quick visit from Entebbe to the Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary Island located on Lake Victoria takes as little as half day from the main Kampala hotels.

Gorilla tracking remains to be the best-recognized tourism and safari activity in Uganda, although there other natural attractions and game in some of the other national parks, like Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls, or Kidepo Valley that hold their own fascinations and offer visitors a unique experience. For that case, the Uganda Wildlife Authority will in November launch two new Gorilla families to increase the number of Gorilla tracking visitors in the country. However, the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s acting executive director, Dr Andrew Seguya said Oruzogo and Kahungye both in the Southern part of Bwindi National Park will bring the number of habituated Gorilla families available for tracking to eight.

“Many tourists were missing out on Gorilla tracking because there were few permits. This is because the animals get uncomfortable with a presence of many people and they are prone to contracting human diseases, so we tend to allocate a small number of people to view them,” Dr Seguya said.

Since each Gorilla family is visited by eight people per day. The two new Uganda mountain gorillas groups will therefore increase the number of Gorilla tracking permits sold to track the beautiful primates from 48 to 64 daily and the opening up of the new groups for visitors will follow the completion of their habituation programme.More so he also said that the animals, in a group of 10-15, are currently undergoing habituation to adapt to human presence in the forest and once familiarized, it will increase gorilla permits sold to tourists from 64 to 80 daily.

Uganda is home to the biggest number of Mountain Gorillas with over 50 per cent of the gentle giant primates left in the world. Not only that but Bwindi Park is the best known Ugandan national park for visits to the Gorillas with the Buhoma Gate being the main entry point. However, other access gates have now been created to decongest the main gate area and make it easier for tourists to reach their allotted Gorilla group. Uganda’s second Gorilla National Park, Mountain Mgahinga National Park, borders the Rwandan side of the trans-boundary ecosystem in which the habitat of the gentle giants is found, divided amongst Uganda, Rwanda, and the DR Congo. Never miss life time memories in Uganda with the Gorillas, be part of the fun at least once in a lifetime.