Uganda Gorilla Trekking Facts, Background, History
Background Information on Mountain Gorilla in Uganda –Behavior, History, Facts of Mountain Gorillas, Predators, Habitat plus Diet:
The endangered impressive Mountain Gorillas in Uganda don’t live in any zoo across the planet since they cannot survive in detention and thus there aren’t any known mountain gorillas surviving within zoos. These can only be found and seen in Africa, in just three countries including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. There are approximately 786 Mountain Gorillas remaining in the world with approximately half of them staying in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest plus the Mgahinga Gorilla Park within Uganda found in East Africa.
When you talk about Gorillas imaginative thoughts cross anyone’s mind; with thoughts of Tarzan movies and King Kong. Mountain Gorillas weren’t known about by the western world until 1902. Rwanda then a German colony, Captain von Berenge was mountaineering Mount Sabinyo on the side of Rwanda together with his friends and at 9300 foot-level where they camped, they spotted a group of Mountain Gorillas and there he shot 2 of them although managed to retrieve just one. The victim was a young-male approximately five years of age, not too big at 220 pounds, however larger than all apes the Germans had ever seen. The Bones plus skin were later forwarded to Berlin and there it was acknowledged as a mountain gorilla.
Nobody had imagined that gorillas could stay in a high and colder environment than West -Africa. The news of gorillas attracted hunters to the region, especially within Congo and there several Mountain Gorillas where shot and others captured. Actually Prince Wilhelm from Sweden shot fourteen mountain gorillas in an expedition within this region done from 1920 to 1921.
The Belgians launched a Mountain Gorilla preservation’s program and later followed the English who did it in Uganda. Within Uganda for several years no one was allowed to receive visitors to see these Mountain Gorillas. Within Kisoro, Walter Baumgärtel was offered permission to establish visits for tourists to his beautiful Traveller’s Rest Inn, a facility where up to date you can stay within Uganda. Baumgärtel wrote an interesting Book “Up among the Mountain Gorillas” which actually is about his personal encounters with the tranquil giant apes in southern Uganda. It is a great book with reference to a man, the attractiveness of the Uganda’s countryside and an inn, and generally about the fascinating Mountain Gorillas and Uganda gorilla safari. Actually Dian Fossey lived there on a frequent basis similar to George Schaller a many other renowned personalities.
The majority of Gorillas which you may have seen in a zoo are the lowlands gorillas of western Africa, and the mountain gorillas are actually a subspecies known as Gorilla beringei beringei. These can only be found in the wilderness of the Virunga highlands of Rwanda within Volcano Park found in Rwanda, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park as well as Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, and the Virunga National Park found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These parks are found only 48 km from each other. Within Uganda as well as Rwanda these parks can be accessed easily, while in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to the rebel activities that happened, there was a probable threat to the lives of visitors.
There are more than seven hundred and eighty six mountain gorillas in the whole world. Uganda hold close to half of their total population, and the majority of them live in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, whereas the others are found in Mgahinga Gorilla Park, however these at times cross over to Rwanda. Fortunately the Gorillas are growing in numbers because of the protection they are offered from the government of Uganda which also included efforts of the adjacent communities to the parks to whom part of the USD 500 fee of Gorilla tracking permits charged from foreign visitors to Mgahinga as well as Bwindi is offered.
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Uganda Gorilla Trekking Background, History, Facts
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