Mountain Gorilla

Encountering these gentle giants is a highlight in any African journey!

Uganda’s star attraction is the endangered mountain gorilla, the bulkiest of living primate, and among the most peaceable. Staring into the pensive brown eyes of these gentle giants is as humbling as it is thrilling. George Schaller famously stated that "No one who looks into a gorilla's eyes – intelligent, gentle, vulnerable – can remain unchanged, for the gap between ape and human vanishes, we know that the gorilla still lives with in us"
Captain Robert van Beringe was the first western person to “discover” a mountain gorilla in 1902. Writing about them to a wider audience, the mountain gorilla was up to this year totally unknown to western scientists although the lowland gorilla had been known earlier. The mountain gorilla was thought to be a new species of gorilla and thus named “Gorilla berengei” in honor of the captain. It was later regarded to be a subspecies and renamed “Gorilla gorilla berengei”.
With approximately 50% of the world’s mountain gorilla population, it’s easy to see why we call Uganda the ‘Land of the Mountain Gorilla’. The best place in all of Uganda to witness the mountain gorilla is Bwindi National Park. Bwindi is very heavily forested so it is wise to be prepared for some tough mountain gorilla tracking, but it will all be worth it as soon as you catch your first glimpse of these amazing animals. The other park that is inhabited by a mountain gorilla troop is the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. However this park is at the confluence of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda and the troops range can take them into these other countries.

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