To see the gorillas in Uganda, you will need a park permit. Because of its size and limited gorilla permits, Bwindi National Park is definitely more visited and popular with tourists, but if you are looking for something much quieter and unique, this is your place. There is one habituated gorilla group that you can see in the Maghinga National Park who are, for obvious reasons, called the Maghinga Group. They were self-sufficient and you can go on a tour with a Batwa guide to learn the history and the secrets of the forest. The Batwa Pygmies were the first tribe or hunter-gatherers in the forest. As well as the protection of the landscape and the endangered species, the park has a huge cultural significance. ‘Gahinga’ is the local word for piles of volcanoes stones cleared from farmland at the foot of the volcanoes. The park has one habituated group of gorillas which are trans-boundary. The park protects a variety of rare and distinctive flora and fauna, including mountain gorillas and golden monkeys on the Ugandan slopes of the Virunga Mountains. This park is south of Bwindi National Park and is Uganda’s smallest national park, at a size of 33.7km2. One other place to see the habituated gorillas, although much less visited, is the Maghinga National Park. You will be able to have some say in it (especially if you are less/more fit than others), but the guides will be able to gauge the groups fitness and enthusiasm quite quickly. The trek usually varies between 2-6 hours and this will all depend on which family you have been assigned (some are much closer to the park headquarters and others are much further into the forest). At the headquarters before the trek, the park rangers and guides will assign each group to a gorilla family in the park. These groups vary in size, family relationships and location. There are 11 habituated groups of gorillas in Bwindi that you can trek to and see. Bwindi homes approximately half of the mountain gorillas left in the world (Bwindi has around 400 gorillas). The main attraction is Bwindi National Park which is located in the very southwestern tip of Uganda. There are two national parks that you can see the habituated gorillas.
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