Mubare mountain gorilla family in Bwindi national park : Mubare mountain gorilla family in Bwindi national park is one of the many mountain gorilla families in Bwindi national Park. This family is known to be one of the most visited families making it the most popular. It’s also among the first families that were habituated gorilla in Bwindi National Park, Uganda.
Bwindi National Park is one of two mountain gorilla parks in Uganda, the other being mgahinga national Park. Bwindi National Park is the biggest of the two and has the greatest number of mountain gorillas in Uganda and the world.
The mubare mountain gorilla family in Bwindi national Park was available to be visited by 1992 after going the habituation process. It was the first to be habituated and the first one that was first visited in Bwindi National Park opening up the mountain gorilla tourism in Bwindi National Park. This is to say mountain gorilla trekking started in 1992 in Bwindi National Park.
The mubare mountain gorilla family gets its name from the mubare hills where they were first sighted before the habituation begun.
As of 2020 the Mubare mountain gorilla is led by silverback Kanyonyi who took over leadership from Ruhondeza. Ruhondeza took over leadership in 2002.
Currently the family has 9 members, the silverback a number of females and 2 younger gorillas.
Previously the family had about 19 members including 1 silverback (Ruhondeza), 4 adult females (Kankonde, Kavira, Kabagyenyi, and Businza), 4 juveniles (Ruterana, Mbusi, Kaviri, and Birungi) and 2 infants (born in 2020 and 2022)
Before 2020 Ruhondeza had been one of the oldest and biggest silverbacks in buhoma and Bwindi national Park.
For the longest time the mubare mountain gorilla family, has been said to the the calmest and the most peaceful in the Bwindi National Park.
At the number of 9 Mubare mountain gorilla family is among the smallest families in Bwindi national park in relation to the other gorillas’ families in the park.
The mubare mountain gorilla family is famous for foraging for food especially bamboo and wild fruits.
To trek this mountain gorilla family, you need to go to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southern Uganda. If you are traveling by road from Uganda’s capital it will take you about 9 to 10 hours to reach the park.
At Bwindi national Park, you will specifically go to buhoma sector that’s where the Mubare mountain gorilla family is.
On your trekking day, you will be up early and go for a briefing at the park headquarters before you enter the forest to trek to the mubare family.
Just to note, the permits to trek this family are obtained way before you even travel the park.
The trek to the gorilla family will take you about 3 to 5 hours and when you get to the gorillas you will spend an hour with the gorillas before you exit the forest for about 2 – 4 hours. On this trek you are like to cover between 4 to 7 km of the walk depending on how far deep the gorilla family is.
On this trek, all the mountain gorilla rules apply these include but are not limited to: – keeping a healthy 7m distance between you and the gorillas, not using flash photography while taking photos of the gorillas, not touching the gorillas, not eating, drinking, smoking or sneezing in front of the gorillas, not doing anything that can be harmful to the gorillas among other things.
Like all the other gorilla families, the mubare gorilla family is listed as an endangered species in the IUCN Red List. This is basically because of the rampant habitat loss, natural disaster, poaching and disease among other things.
