How Many Gorilla Families Are There In Uganda? For tourists wondering about which country they should travel to as they are planning to go on a Gorilla trekking safari, Uganda is the best destination to opt for trekking activities because it has a total of around 11 habituated gorilla groups/families that are always available within their natural habitats to be trekked and the interesting thing is that each of these groups comprises of about 10 to 40 members of Varying ages. More so, each of these groups is being headed by a gorilla silverback (the oldest male) in the group.
Gorilla trekking activities in Uganda are best done within areas like; Bwindi Impenetrable national park which hosts about 400 mountain gorillas and about 19 habituated gorilla groups and they can also do the trekking with Mgahinga National park where the trekking processes is always considered easy because it is a home to only one largest gorilla family which is known as “Nyakagezi group”. However, there are so many gorilla groups in Uganda that tourists can trek while on their safari and some of these include;
- Mubare Gorilla Family.
Mubare Gorilla family/ group is famously known as the oldest gorilla group in the country which was officially opened and published in 1993 and the number of the members in this group later reduced due to the fights, death and migration of some members to other groups. Mubare Gorilla group is one of the easiest gorilla groups to trek and it is located within Bwindi impenetrable national park in Buhoma sector. more so, this group derived its name from the Mubare hills where the first mountain gorillas were spotted and this name Mubare means the plies of stone and in Rukiga which is referred to as “Amabare”.
Mubare gorilla group was formed by a dominate silverback named as Ruhondeza who later passed on in 2012 and currently it is being led by Kanyonyi who has put in a lot of efforts to improve this group due to the fact that it has led to the increase of its members to 13 in number.
- Bitukura Gorilla Family.
Bitukura gorilla group is one of the gorilla groups located in Ruhija sector in Bwindi national park. This gorilla group is made up of about 14 members and a silverback named Ndahura who took over the leadership after Karamuzi who retired is leading it. More so, Bitukura gorilla group is one of the groups that has around three other silverbacks that were happened to be named after a river, which is near their territory.
- Nshongi Gorilla family.
Nshongi gorilla family is located within Rushaga sector in Bwindi Impenetrable National park and it is officially published to the public in 2009. In addition, this group derived its name due to the fact it was first spotted near a river “Nshongi’ and therefore, its name refers to the deep honey-like color of the river. More Nshongi gorilla family famously known because its large size whereby it had around 37 members but currently it has around 26 individuals with around 4 silverbacks.
- Kahugye Gorilla Family.
Kahugye gorilla family is located in Rushaga sector in Bwindi Impenetrable national park and it led by a silverback named by Rumansi and it has in other male silverbacks such as; Rwigi and Rahamuka. More so, this group is made up of 13 members.
- Mishaya Gorilla group.
Mishaya Gorilla group is located within Rushaga sector in Bwindi Impenetrable national park and this gorilla group was formed by a silver back named as Mishaya after him winning over the dominate silverback of the Nshongi gorilla group in 2011. In addition, Mishaya was well known to be a good leader to the other members in the family because he was seen taking fully responsibility of protecting and defending his members. However, currently the Mishaya gorilla group is being led by a silverback named Mwiine and the group is made of around four infants such as; Mize, Rutaro, Bukunzi and Mwiiza and many others.
More so, apart from the above mentioned families, there other gorilla families that tourists should take note that they are there to be trekked in Uganda and these include; Oruzogo gorilla family which is found within Ruhija sector in Bwindi, Bweza gorilla group in Rushaga sector, Busingye gorilla family, kyaguriro gorilla family, Nyakagezi gorilla group which is the only one found in Mgahinga national park and many others.
Contact our trusted tour operators in case of more information about how many mountain gorillas are found within Uganda and Book with our tours and travel companies such as; Achieve Global safaris who offer the best tour packages while on your gorilla trekking safaris in Uganda.
