RWANDA GORILLAS VS UGANDA GORILLAS

COMPARISON BETWEEN RWANDA MOUNTAIN GORILLA TREKKING AND RWANDA GORILLA TRACKING

Rwanda and Uganda Gorilla trekking experiences are some how similar but slightly different due to Geographical location, the number of habituated Gorilla families, the size of gorillas, the size of each gorilla group, the nature of their habitat in terms of vegetation, and so on.

In Uganda, Gorilla trekking is conducted in two national parks: Bwindi Impenetrable forest and Mgahinga National Park while in Rwanda, Mountain Gorilla trekking experience is done in Volcanoes National Park.

At the moment, Rwanda has 10 major or habituated gorilla groups namely Susa, Kwitonda, Sabyinyo, Agasha (group 13), Umubano, Amahoro gorilla, Hirwa group, Karisimbi group, Bwenge group and  Ugenda group while Uganda has more than ten habituated gorilla groups namely Nkuringo group, Bwengye, Mubare, Habinyanja, Rushegura, Bitakura, Oruzogo, Kyaguriro, Nsongi, Mishaya, Kahungye, Busingye, Bweza group and the only Nyakagezi gorilla group in Mgahinga Forest National Park.

From Entebbe International Airport, it is 8 hours drive to the home of mountain Gorillas (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park) while the distance from Kigali International Airport to Volcanoes national park is 3 hours drive.  Therefore, the short distance makes Rwanda Gorillas trekking more easier than that of Uganda.

Uganda has two gorilla national parks namely Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with 12 gorilla groups and Nyakagezi in Mgahinga National Park while Rwanda has one home of mountain gorillas known as Volcanoes National Park hosting ten habituated Gorilla families.

Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga forest National Parks consists of tropical rain forest while Volcanoes National Park consists of Bamboo forests.  Tropical forests in Uganda makes the search for Gorillas more hectic and compared to Bamboo forests where Gorillas are early reached. This is because tropical rain forest has dense undergrowth making then dark but Bamboo forest are clear and  thin.

Uganda has more Gorillas compared to Rwanda's. More than 450 world remaining mountain gorillas are found in Uganda while some few are found in Rwanda. However, it should be noted that both countries host mountain Gorillas and no low land gorillas found.

Uganda mountain Gorillas takes more time to be found as compared to Rwanda Gorillas. In Rwanda, the shortest gorilla trek takes 1-2 hours while that  in Uganda takes 3-4 hours. This is due to the largeness of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park compared to Volcanoes National Park- In Uganda gorillas move freely to distant area however, to shorten the trek, experienced ranger guide in each park predicts where the gorilla group basing on where the group slept last night.

In term of direction, Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks are found in south western Uganda while Volcanoes national park in the northern region of Rwanda.