Nyakagezi Gorilla Family – Habituated Gorilla family in Mgahinga Gorilla National park
Nyakagezi Gorilla Family size: 9 members
The Nyakagezi Gorilla family is the only fully habituated Gorilla group in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Since it is the only habituated Gorilla family, it offers visitors a great opportunity to track the rare Mountain Gorillas in the wild. The Nyakagezi Gorilla family is composed of 9 members; 4 silverbacks, 2 infants, 2 adults females 1 juvenile.
The dominant silverback is called Mark, who took over leadership from his father Bugingo. A rare but an interesting fact about the Nyakagezi Gorilla group is that Bugingo still lives in the family yet in most cases, once the dormant silverback is overthrown, he is banished and dies in isolation or seeks refuge from other Gorilla groups. For example in Mubare group, after Kanyonyi took over leadership from Ruhondeza, then later left the group and lived a solitary life until he died.
Nyakagezi family is found in South-Western Uganda, just in the renowned slopes of the three Virunga Volcanoes that includes the Muhabura, Sabyinyo and Gahinga mountains. Nyakagezi is a place in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park where there is a lot of food attractive to the Gorillas. Nyakagezi family is one of the easiest to track given the fact that it prefers a narrow home range for feeding, nesting, relaxing and recreation.
The Nyakagezi Gorilla group was famous for their migratory behavior across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. However, this Gorilla group has today settled in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda where tourists are assured of Gorilla trekking experiences.
Though this group is mobile and crosses over to Rwanda and DRC Congo, it is considered the easiest to track in Uganda because they are found in areas of lower altitude and prefer a small home range for nesting, relaxing and feeding (because of abundance of food). The Nyakagezi group is one of the most interesting Gorilla group worth tracking in Uganda because it’s the only Gorilla group in Mgahinga, their mobile behavior and the fact that the silverbacks of the family (especially the oldest silverback “Bugingo” and the reigning silverback) live together happily.
Since 2012 the Gorilla family has been settled within the Mgahinga National Park and the chances to see these great apes stand at over 95% chances. Now it is easier to track this Gorilla group because they have a permanent settlement unlike initially where they were always on the move. More and more tourists are now visiting the Park to track this interesting group. Gorilla permits for Nyakagezi group are booked at the Uganda Wildlife Authority Park headquarters in Kampala and only 8 Gorilla permits for this Park per day.
Besides tracking the Nyakagezi group, tourists can engage in Golden Monkey tracking because this is the only Park in Uganda where Silver meets Gold, the interesting Batwa trail (that takes you through the life of the “People of the Forest” who were hunter-gatherers), Birding and mountain hiking to Mt Sabyinyo, Mt Muhavura and Mgahinga.
If you are interested in tracking the Mountain Gorillas in this group, with Great Adventures Uganda you can choose to travel on road or by air. Nyakagezi Gorilla family is situated in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and interested visitors can take scheduled flights from Entebbe International Airport or Kajjansi Airstrip and then land in Kisoro Airstrip where they can be driven to the National Park by road to their respective lodge. By road: You can take the Kampala-Mbarara-Kabale-Kisoro route where you can easily connect to park where Gorilla trekking is done. Great Adventure Safaris organizes gorilla trekking safaris to Mgahinga National park in Uganda.
