Bwenge Gorilla Group
Bwenge Gorilla Group: Uganda is known as the pearl of Africa, the country boasts with diverse species of birds almost half of the world’s bird species, its also one of the three countries in the world where tourists can trek for the endangered mountain gorillas.
Mountain gorillas share about 98% DNA with humans making them humans closest relatives, but in the past gorillas were becoming endangered because poachers hunted them for meat, pet trade and many other things thanks to the conservation efforts of the American primatologist who tried her best to make sure the gorillas were not extinct and this sadly led to the loss of her life.
The Bwenge gorilla family mostly resides in the Karisoke mountain slopes of volcanoes national park in Rwanda, the group was dominated by Bwenge the silverback and it was formed in 2007 when Bwenge broke away from his own group to start up his own family.
Bwenge was joined by other mountain gorillas, the Bwenge mountain gorilla family is one of the hardest groups to trek in volcanoes national park as tourists have to trek up to 600 meter elevation. Bwenge the founder of this group was the son to the famous silverback Titus of Beetsme group but broke off to form his own group.
One of the special things about Bwenge gorilla group is that it was featured in the famous movie “gorillas in the mist”. The group derived its name from the dominating gorilla Bwenge the word Bwenge means “wisdom” in the local language.
Bwenge the dominant gorilla was found dead by gorilla doctors, its said that he sustained lacerations after interacting with a lone mountain gorilla. There were also suspicions of cardiac disease because there were changes in his heart and lungs.
Bwenge was known for his caring and loving characters especially when he took care of two infants whose mothers were killed, Bwenge is one of the gorilla groups that has faced hard times especially when 7 of its infants died.
After the death of Bwenge the group was taken over by a mature female known as Maggie, the solitary male of Pablo’s group known as Turatsinze was seen following the group for several days the him through the Bwenge gorilla family is adventurous with panoramic views.
A part from gorilla trekking tourists can also go for birding in Bwindi impenetrable forest national park which is home to about 360 species of birds some of this endemic to this area examples of birds in Bwindi include; dusky crimson wing, bar tailed trogon, honey guide, rusty faced woodland gruels rush warbler and yellow eyed black fly catcher to mention a few.
During gorilla trekking tourists can also spot other primates like black and white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, olive baboons, Syke monkey and red tailed monkeys among the rest other mammals like forest elephants, bush bucks, warthogs and giant forest hogs though this can be occasional.
Tourists visiting Bwindi impenetrable national park can sleep in lodges like Chameleon hill lodge, gorilla safari lodge, Wagtail eco safari camp, gift of nature lodge, cuckoo land tented lodge, Ruhijja gorilla safari lodge and Nshongi camp among the rest. Bwindi can be reached in 8-9 hours drive from Kampala. Standard chattered domestic flights can also be organized from Entebbe airport or Kajjansi airfield.
