Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park: In Uganda gorilla safaris are carried out in mainly two national parks which include Bwindi Impenetrable forest National park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. However, gorilla safaris in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park are not usually mentioned by most of the tourism stakeholders and this is attributed to the fact that most have concentrated on gorillas in Bwindi which has outshone Mgahinga Gorilla National Park which also harbors habituated gorillas that are fully habituated and are available for trekking. In this write-up, Africa adventure vacations will provide you with an opportunity to discover the location of this park, description of this park, and probably why it has not sounded well in the ears of many people as Bwindi Impenetrable National parks.

Similar to Bwindi, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is found in the southwestern part of Uganda commonly known as the Kigezi region in Bufumbira county, Kisoro district and is bordered by Congo in the west and Rwanda in the South. The park is the smallest of all ten National parks in Uganda with an area equivalent to 33.7Suqure kilometers. Despite its small size, the park is habitat to the genius, endangered mountain gorilla species which travelers cannot miss as they have seen prosperous all over the place in search of nutritious foods like human beings, a justification that we are close to cousins with these species.

It is not common to find a destination that attracts travelers/tourists from different countries and converges at a specific point for the same cause (gorilla trekking). I can authoritatively confirm that Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is one of the few destinations on the continent where gorillas stay and attract people from different generating countries to come and view them nearly at the border points, travelers coming from DR.Congo, Rwanda and Uganda directions find themselves meeting at far end border for gorilla which makes Mgahinga Gorilla National Park well situated for fantastic gorilla tours.

Additionally, the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park shelters all three northern slopes of the well-known Virunga volcanoes which includes Muhavura that stands at four thousand, one hundred twenty-seven meters, mount Gahinga that stands at three thousand four hundred seventy-four meters and mount Sabinyo with three thousand six hundred forty-five meters. This means that gorilla trekking is done on high altitude in this park which offers tourist the best chance to have a wider of view of all the three countries of Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda since all own portion of the Park.

The fact that the Virunga volcanoes are shared by the three countries, each country is responsible for the protection and conservation of its portions because the endangered status of Mountain gorillas makes them vulnerable for both natural and human disturbances and to get tourism gains out of the conservation is the best priority. As the regional blocks, the three countries came together and formed the Virunga conservation area (VCA) comprising of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Parc National des Volcans and Parc National des Virunga of which Mgahinga is 8% of VCA.

Members of the Nykagezi Gorilla family

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park further consists of partially forested three extinct volcanoes of Virunga mountains. A traveler footstep within Mgahinga national park has welcomed a great overview of by walking around towards the high raised viewpoint which just 16 minutes away from the gate at Ntebeko. The park is great biodiversity and biological significance due to the changes in climate during the Pleistocene periods that led to these mountainous areas to anchorage plants and animals of which tourism growth bis based. The Virunga harbor a variety of wildlife including Mountain gorillas the world’s endangered species.

Why Mgahinga National Park has been overshadowed by Bwindi Impenetrable forest National Park yet it offers gorillas tours as well?

As earlier mentioned, gorilla trekking in Mgahinga National park is not commonly mentioned by different people despite the availability of habituated gorillas in the park.  This fallacy was generated as the result of constant movement of the habituated gorilla family Nyakagezi which is the only family available for trekking located in the Park. This gorilla family on many times could move to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Rwanda and thus this family could not be relied on by most tour operators selling gorilla permits.

Some travelers still feared and could not risk being buying permits for Mgahinga National Park because of the unreliability impact of the gorillas. However, after this was identified as the problem, strategies have been put in place to address it by the Uganda Wildlife Authority which involves only selling on Mgahinga gorilla permits when the gorillas (Nyakagezi family) are only on the Ugandan side. However, because of favorable climatic conditions and better conservation strategies by Uganda Government, the Nyakagezi gorilla family now spends most of the time in Mgahinga gorilla National park where most travelers have trekked it from.

It can be concluded that the smallest size of the park has not stopped it from offering the best experiences to the travelers especially those who would wish to experience themselves with a gorilla the world’s endangered species. The African Adventure Vacations is available to prove you with best s gorilla safaris to Mgahinga gorilla National park in addition to other interesting features of the park including culture, birding as well as primate watching. All that is needed is to keep visiting our website for best destination tours in Uganda and all East African countries including Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.