The unique Habinyanja gorilla family

Habinyanja gorilla family is among the families located in the Buhoma sector and is available for gorilla tracking activities in Bwindi national park.This group was toured first by tourists in 1999 after it was habituated in 1997. Importantly the gorillas have to be first habituated before it was opened for travelers, in most cases these genius gorillas need to get used to people before they opened officially for trekking and this is done by researchers in the process called habituation.

The origin of this name was a result of the river where they were first sighted and from the local word Nyanja which is interpreted as a river or a place with some larger quantities of water. As of today, the Habinyanja family lives with 17 individuals with 2 silverbacks headed by Makara and its available for trekking by the travelers.

Since its formation, there has been a lot of struggles mostly power struggles for example during habituation process, it was found by the trackers that the group was led by Mugurusi, meaning an old male in the local language and after his demise,  the brothers  Rwasingazi and Mwirima (darkness) on consensus shared the leadership responsibilities however their characters were not the same as the latter was an introvert while the former was an extrovert who liked moving around and because of this difference, they couldn’t carry on leadership responsibilities.

In the year 2002, the two-silverback brother decided to separate peacefully. This led the group the followed Rwansigazi to keep the name Habinyanja and Mwirima followers came to be named as Rushegura family. Later on, the fact that Rwansigazi was tired and became old after liberating his group, he decided to give out power to Makara silverback who is a dominated silverback of the Habinyanja gorilla family.  These groups sometimes find each other and live rather mutually and still when they come across each other, they give themselves peaceful hands.

Dejectedly, a misfortune occurred in mid-year 2011 when Mizano one of the strong individuals of the family was found dead and this was attributed to the sustained wounds in the neck and shoulders from spears.  This death was as a result of poachers who believed to have raided the with group with their dogs and Mizano died bravely for defending his family members when he was speared and died instantly. And this kind of poaching presented the first incident of its kind involving the killing of a gorilla for the last 25years.

It can be concluded that because of this power struggles in a funny style, Habinyanja is an enthralling gorilla group with a lot of play and commotion. And therefore, our travelers are advised to book a permit to trek this family to enrich themselves with its attractive history. Book with us at Africa Adventure Vacations for more details.