There are several activities in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park that tourists can undertake during their stay. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a very big forest of 321 square kilometres, and then being so big, there are many activities to do: mountain Gorilla trekking, bird watching, Gorilla Habituation Experience, hiking, nature walks, community experience, cultural activities like the Batwa Cultural experience.
Allow me to focus on the mountain Gorilla trekking experience, to which the Vanishing Treasures Global Partners participated in, on this Wednesday, June 7th, 2023, in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, on the eve of their meeting.
What is Gorilla trekking, and how is it done?
When you are doing the gorilla trekking, you go following the Gorilla trail.
What is a gorilla trail?
When Gorillas are moving in the jungle, they leave a push of plants pointing in the same direction they are heading to. That is the gorilla trail. In that trail, you find signs, like their dung or the leftovers of what they were feeding on. Those signs can tell you how long the gorillas have been on that spot.
Before, it was hard to do the gorilla trekking; very few people could make it others could not. The whole ( tourists, trackers, guides, guards) team used to leave at the same time, and the team used to be with the trackers.
Who are the trackers?
Trackers are the rangers who know how to tell the difference between the trails of all the animals in the forest. For example, where gorillas have passed, it is really different from where chimpanzees have passed, which is also different from where baboons have passed and where elephants have passed. Every animal in the forest has its own trail, which is different from others.
Who are the guides?
The guides are the rangers who go interpreting nature to the visitors and answer the visitors' questions
Who are the guards?
The guards are the rangers with guns. When we are moving in the forest, we can meet aggressive animals like elephants or no habituated gorillas. The role of the guards will be to shoot in the air to scare those animals.
Trackers used to lead the team, following the trail. The team members had to pass where the gorillas had passed until they reached where they were. They would visit for one hour before coming back. These animals don't stay where they were before. The following day another team had to start from where the previous team had left the gorillas until they could reach the actual place of the gorillas.
Currently, it is easy. The trackers leave early in advance; they distribute themselves according to the Gorilla family groups visitors are to visit. At the Visitors Information Center, they register the available visitors and distribute them to where those trackers are. The visitors are given their respective guides, who are in touch with the trackers who have already identified where the gorillas are.
The visitors stay with the gorillas for one hour, while the trackers stay behind with the gorillas doing monitoring activities like whether there is a disease that occurred or if there is any other abnormal behaviour developed.
Experience of Bitukura Family gorilla group trekking.
The tracking starts with the entertainment by the Community members performing in front of the visitors and the briefing on the Gorilla trekking itself:
The alpha male of this group is a silverback called Mugisha. Adult males and females, as well as babies, are happy in this forest. Protection of these gorillas is a must. These mountain gorillas are only found in the Virunga Massif, composed of Volcanoes National Park of Rwanda, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park of Uganda and Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as in the Bwindi I Impenetrable National Park contiguous to the Sarambwe Game Reserve of DRC.
The last census of Mountain Gorillas has shown that the Mountain Gorilla population is currently 1063. Bitukura family is one of these:
Mugisha:The Alpha male of Bitukura Family
Dr. Andrew G. Seguya, in front of Mugisha The Vanishing Treasures global Partners Mr. Byamugisha Benjamin, UWA guide in action
in the jungle for Bitukura Family trekking
It was amazing after the Bitukura family trekking
