More gorilla families on show

Kampala

More tourists have a chance to visit the rare mountain gorillas after the Uganda Wildlife Authority added two more families of the rare primates to the tourist circuit.

UWA announced that the move will increase to eight the number of gorilla families that tourists can track in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. As a result, the number of tracking permits will increase from the current 48 to 64 per day, UWA spokesperson Lillian Nsubuga said.

The two new families will be named “Orugonzo” and “Kahungye” after a plant that grows in the area and a local hill, respectively. Ms Nsubuga said a ninth family is habituated but purely for research purposes.

Mountain Gorillas are a rare tourist attraction and an endangered species that are only found in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Only about 600 remain in the world, of which a majority live in Uganda. There is a long waiting period, of up to a year, for permits to see the rare animals and the inclusion of two new families to the trackable groups should reduce the waiting time.

Permits for Ugandan tourists cost Shs250,000 while foreigners residing in Uganda pay $475 (about Shs950,000) and visiting tourists pay $500 (about Shs1 million). Interested people can also ‘Friend a Gorilla’ through a publicity campaign currently running on the social networking site, Facebook.