Bwenge Family Group
Bwenge Family Group in Bwindi impenetrable forest national park was created as early as 2007 by Bwenge, and named after him the group’s leading silverback, after leaving his Natal group and another female from another group joined it. The Bwenge Family group inhabits slopes of Karisoke Volcano between Karisimbi and Bisoke mountains and had gone through hard times when it lost 6 young ones.
Later alone the Bwenge Family from that loss and it has 11 members together with 1 silverback. Bwenge is a Kinyarwanda word which means ‘Wisdom’ surprisingly it is this group that featured in the Movie ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.
In according to the above description about the habituated gorillas in the volcanoes, you should have a good image on the features and nature of each gorilla family. This gives a big chance on which gorilla family is suitable for you to track on your safari in the volcanoes national park in Rwanda.
Bwenge the dominant gorilla was found dead by gorilla doctors, its said that he sustained lacerations after interacting with a lone mountain gorilla. There were also suspicions of cardiac disease because there were changes in his heart and lungs.
Bwenge was known for his caring and loving characters especially when he took care of two infants whose mothers were killed, Bwenge is one of the gorilla groups that has faced hard times especially when 7 of its infants died.
After the death of Bwenge the group was taken over by a mature female known as Maggie, the solitary male of Pablo’s group known as Turatsinze was seen following the group for several days the him through the Bwenge gorilla family is adventurous with panoramic views.
A part from gorilla trekking tourists can also go for birding in Bwindi impenetrable forest national park which is home to about 360 species of birds some of this endemic to this area examples of birds in Bwindi include; dusky crimson wing, bar tailed trogon, honey guide, rusty faced woodland gruels rush warbler and yellow eyed black fly catcher to mention a few.
During gorilla trekking tourists can also spot other primates like black and white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, olive baboons, Syke monkey and red tailed monkeys among the rest other mammals like forest elephants, bush bucks, warthogs and giant forest hogs though this can be occasional.
Tourists visiting Bwindi impenetrable national park can sleep in lodges like Chameleon hill lodge, gorilla safari lodge, Wagtail eco safari camp, gift of nature lodge, cuckoo land tented lodge, Ruhijja gorilla safari lodge and Nshongi camp among the rest. Bwindi can be reached in 8-9 hours drive from Kampala. Standard chattered domestic flights can also be organized from Entebbe airport or Kajjansi airfield.
