To many travelers to Uganda and Rwanda, gorilla tracking is on top of their bucketlist and the best place they look to is Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. This forested park is located in south Western Uganda and it boasts of hosting almost half of the entire population of the world’s mountain gorillas.
Location
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is located in South Western Uganda.
Things to See in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
The major attraction in Bwindi are the mountain gorillas. The park is home to about 420 gorillas, almost a half of the world population of Mountain Gorilla. The mountain gorillas are distributed between two regions; Virunga Region and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The existence of a good number of gorillas and the successful development of gorilla tourism has made Bwindi Forest, the most popular place to visit in Uganda.
Apart from the mountain gorillas, Bwindi hosts a good population of chimpanzees. This is the only park that has both mountain gorillas and chimpanzees.
To birders, Bwindi is a paradise! There are also 346 species of birds recorded in the park including endemics that cannot be seen elsewhere in the world. The park also protects over 200 species of butter flies.
This Afromontane forest has dense under storey of fern, vines and shrubs. About 324 trees species have been recorded here, 10 of which occur no where else in Uganda.
Gorilla Watching in Bwindi National Park
A main reason to visit Uganda from a nature perspective is to enjoy the incredible mountain gorillas in the jungle. Mountain gorillas differ from their lowland cousins as their fur is thicker and adapted to the colder temperature at high altitude. There are currently about 400 gorillas in Bwindi and the number has been increasing steadily over the years. Many researchers feel the slow growth of the population can be attributed mainly to visitors who want to see the gorillas
Gorillas live in groups of around 10 individuals and are led by the most powerful silverback with the rest of the group comprising females and younger males. The silverback makes decisions for the group and protects them out of danger. In order to see gorillas, you can enjoy them from kisoro which is about 460 kilometers from kampala. Because of the incredible landscape, many people refer to this part of the continent as the Switzerland of Africa.
The gorillas are spread among 11 habituated groups, which you can visit on tour by purchasing a gorilla permit and booking a stay at one of the wonderful gorilla lodges. One of the most easily accessible gorillas groups from Kisoro is the Nkuringo group, which you can visit on tours from the highly regarded Nkuringo Gorilla Camp.