New silverback takes over leadership of Nyakagezi gorilla group.
Located in Mgahinga National Park in southern western Uganda, the Nyakagezi gorilla family is the only known habituated group. Together with Volcanoes National Park of the Democractic Republic of Congo, this little national park is part of the great virunga mountains and shares borders with Rwanda.
Ten members of the Nyakagezi gorilla family include five silverbacks, three females, one young adult and one baby. After habituation, members of a particular gorilla family are given names to help them find one other readily. These cover Mathew, Nshuti, Baby Rukundo, Mutagamba, Nvuyekure, mark and bugingo.
News reports from Mgahinga National Park indicate that Mark, said to be 53 years old, has taken over as leader of the Nyakagezi gorilla family from Bugingo. Rare among mountain gorillas and other animals, Bugingo still remains with the family; displaced silverbacks often flee from such households and either seek safety on another gorilla family or go alone.
Sometimes they will develop a new family from either a habituated or wild gorilla family. We have observed similar situations when Mwirima silver back went into seclusion after the dethronement from the leadership of the Mubare gorilla group.
From seven to 10 members is fantastic news for Uganda’s tourism because visitors want to hike mountain gorilla families with many members including silverbacks and young infants. All of this comes from improved conservation strategies used by Uganda Wildlife Authority and other participants in this fight.
Until this year, when they settled in Mgahinga National Park, the Nyakagezi gorilla family spent most of their time traveling between countries. This makes it impossible for Uganda Wildlife Authority to sell its gorilla permits in advance to a degree that would allow all individuals who would be interested in trekking the Nyakagezi gorilla family to reserve their gorilla permits on ground.
Since gorilla permits were available for both Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, this hampered the growth of gorilla tourism in Mgahinga National Park since no visitor would spend money to come to Uganda hoping to trek Nyakagezi gorilla family.
The Park is now attracting quite a fair number of visitors who visit Mgahinga not only for gorillas but also for other activities including golden monkey experience and tracking, hiking of Mgahinga Volcanoes among other volcanoes including Sabinyo and Muhavura. The gorilla family is now permanently settled in. Batwa path also exposes visitors to the way of life and culture of the previously wooded populace that was driven out of Mgahinga and other south western Uganda national parks once they were gazetted.
Accessible by road and air, Mgahinga National Park is situated in Kisoro district in south-west Uganda. From Kampala, it is around 9-10 hours drive; from Kigali city in Rwanda, it is roughly 3 hours drive. For individuals who want to fly to the Park, charter and scheduled flights may be arranged at Kisoro airstrip, the closest and only one available.
You could decide to travel up to two hours to Mgahinga National Park, where numerous lodging facilities like Gahinga Volcanoes Lodge is leading from Kisoro town. You may stay in the well-known Kisoro Travellers rest Inn in Kisoro, where Dianne Fossel used to stay while in Uganda.
