Mountain gorillas are the major attraction in the Virunga Region. About 490 mountain gorillas inhabit the Virunga Massif ecosystem shared by Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, the DRC’s Virunga National Park, and Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park. Another 400 and above live on a separate mountain in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park. Not like other primate species that live in captivity mountain gorillas cannot be found in zoo they can only be met in their national environment.
The endangered species are only found in the Virunga conservation area and the Bwindi impenetrable forest national park! Within the Virunga, there are three gorilla parks; Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The total population of mountain gorillas is estimated to be about 900 individuals! The Virunga massif hosts half of the total population of the mountain gorillas in the whole world.
Since the 1970s, the Virunga Region has been attracting tourists interested in mountain gorilla trekking. Gorilla tourism was first introduced in the Virunga National Park and later introduced in the Volcanoes National Park and Mgahinga National Park. With several habituated groups of mountain gorillas in the region, many visitors prefer to go gorilla tracking in the Virunga Region.
The Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
The latest figure for the population of mountain gorillas is about 1,063 animals, who are spread over the Virunga Massif and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.
The Mikeno area of Virunga National Park contains a large part of this population, since the Afromontane Forest at elevations between 2,200 and 3,400 meters serves as the main feeding and nesting habitat.
The species is still listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, the total population having shown a steady increase since the 1981 census, which had recorded about 254 individuals throughout the entire massif.
The park has a number of gorilla families that are used to being around people and who can be visited via the Bukima patrol post.
The roster is altered whenever groups split, merge or become habituated. The following groups have for recent years been open to visitation:
The Humba group is named in reference to its founding silverback and split off from the Rugendo group in 1998, usually travelling through the lower-elevation bamboo area on the southern slopes of Mikeno.
The group consists of about ten people, one of them being two adult silverbacks.
The Rugendo group is one of the oldest families of habituated gorillas in the Virunga program and has been under observation since the early 1990s.
Over the course of three decades of observation the group has suffered considerable changes in its demographic make-up, such as the death of its leading silverback during the armed conflict in 2007.
The number of current members is about nine.
The Nyakamwe group is a more recent instance of habituation which has taken place in the middle-elevation forest corridors on the eastern side of Mikeno.
The group started allowing visits in the 2010s and at the present time has about 11 members, their spread sometimes taking them near the park boundary.
The Munyaga group is known since it is near the Bukima trailhead and this often leads to shorter trekking times.
The home range of this group extends into the agricultural boundary zone, which is why it has become a focus of the conflict mitigation activities carried out by the park rangers. The group numbers about twelve individuals.
About Gorillas: The World of the Mountain Gorilla
The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is the largest of all the gorillas and is the most endangered. The world’s remaining 820 mountain gorillas live in three different countries in Central Africa: Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Although this makes their range seem large, the mountain gorillas actually inhabit a small geographic area where the borders of these three countries meet. Over half of the world’s mountain gorillas can be found amidst the Virunga chain of volcanoes and the remaining populations live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest some 75 km to the north.
Unlike their lowland counterparts, the mountain gorillas have long hair, which helps them handle the temperature extremes found at altitude. Mountain gorillas live in large family units led by a single dominant adult male, known as the “Silverback” — a name derived from the grey hair that develops on male’s back as it reaches adulthood. The Silverback is responsible for protecting the family from predators or other threats, including solitary Silverbacks intent on claiming females as their own. The dominant Silverback also takes on the role of mediator when disputes arise in the family. Some families contain more than one Silverback, but only one is dominant and that male alone is responsible for mating with the adult females of the group.
The sub-adult males of the family are known as “Blackbacks”. Adult females are generally half the size of the males and it is their responsibility to initiate mating with the dominant male, as well as care for the infants.
Despite all the lore about the ferocity of the mountain gorilla, in general they are very peaceful creatures. Most days are spent foraging for food, playing, and grooming. Aside from mock fighting amongst juveniles, displays of aggression are reserved for challenges to the Silverback’s dominance or direct threats to the family’s well being.
The mountain gorilla’s fierceness has been seen protecting its young from illegal animal traffickers intent on capturing baby gorillas. For every mountain gorilla baby that is found in the marketplace, an entire family of gorillas has died trying to protect it.
In addition to the threat posed by the illegal animal trade, the major threats to the mountain gorilla’s continued existence are habitat destruction, poaching, human diseases and war and civil unrest. Although Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the mountain gorilla its “flagship” species, the war raging in eastern Congo since 1994 has rendered this distinction moot. Over 300,000 refugees now inhabit the area just below the park’s southern border. Due to the shattered infrastructure of eastern Congo, these refugees have had no choice but to enter mountain gorilla habitat for fuel and food.
Disease is arguably one of the gravest threats to the mountain gorilla. With people encroaching more and more into gorilla habitat, one of the few remaining ways to protect mountain gorillas is tourism. Unfortunately, tourism brings with it one of the biggest potential threats — disease. Because mountain gorillas share approximately 97% of our DNA, they are susceptible to the same diseases as humans. Unlike humans, however, their resistance is much lower. Sicknesses that the average human can beat with bed rest and antibiotics can prove fatal to the mountain gorilla. More serious outbreaks, such as Ebola or virulent strains of influenza could take the few remaining mountain gorilla populations beyond the point of return. Because of this vulnerability, it is imperative that tourists only visit gorillas when healthy and keep a minimum distance of 25 feet (7 meters) away. In the bigger scheme, the mountain gorilla’s range needs to be expanded to provide discrete populations with the geographic isolation needed to prevent the widespread transmission of disease.
Understanding the nature of mountain gorillas, and the threats they face, is the first step in assuring their preservation.