Hirwa gorilla family

Hirwa gorilla family

Hirwa Gorilla Family is one of the gorilla families well known in volcanoes national park in Rwanda but recently shifted to Uganda’s Mgahinga national park. These two national parks neighbor each other in the Virunga Massif with exactly the same kind of vegetation cover which enables these animals to stay in any of the areas.

Mountain gorillas are critically endangered subspecies of the eastern gorillas. The only place you can find these primates is the Virunga massif (Mgahinga national park, Volcanoes national park and the DRC) and Bwindi Impenetrable forest national park. Gorillas are very mobile animals and for quite a long time, Mgahinga and Volcanoes national park have been sharing Nyakagezi gorilla family which roams around the two parks and has been the only habituated gorilla group trekked in Mgahinga. It was however good news to hear that Uganda has received another gorilla family (Hirwa gorilla family) which migrated in august 2019 from the northern part of Volcanoes national park in Kinigi province and settled in the southern part of mgahinga national park. hirwa gorilla family consisted of 17 members at the time they migrated to Uganda but lost 4 of them that were struck by lightning in the forest of Mgahinga.

Uganda Wildlife Authority has been availing only 8 gorilla trekking permits for Mgahinga national park daily but this has now increased to 16 permits availed daily until the group migrates again back to Rwanda. We have no idea about when it could move back to Rwanda but all the members are very safe in Uganda as they remain under the Conservation policy of the International Gorilla Conservation Program which is in charge of all gorillas of the Virunga area.

Gorilla trekking in Mgahinga gorilla National Park in Uganda

Mgahinga national park is the smallest national park in Uganda. There have always been only 8 permits produced each day for tourists who want to go for gorilla trekking in the park since there was only one gorilla group called Nyakagyezi. Nyakagyezi was joined by an interesting gorilla family from Rwanda in August 2019 increasing the gorilla trekking permits to Mgahinga to 16 per day. Contact us to book for your gorilla trekking permit to trek for Hirwa gorilla family. A gorilla trekking permit costs $700. Great Adventure safaris organize gorilla trekking safaris to Magahinga National park in Uganda.