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Mountain Gorilla

Gorilla beringei beringei

Description:

I visited this mountain gorilla family in Uganda, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in 2010, this was the most memorable meeting I've ever experienced with such wonderful animals. The family was named Bitukura after a river that bears the same name. As it happens the family was first sighted in near the river which also turned out to be part of its homing range. Habituation of this group begun in July 2007 and the group was opened for tourism in October 2008. This was a relatively easy group to habituate as it had often been encountered by UWA rangers and trackers in their encounters with the Kyaguriro group and this non-threatening human contact made it easier for the group to become accustomed to human company much faster than with other gorilla groups which often take a minimum of two years to fully habituate.

Habitat:

The vegetation is very dense at the bottom of the mountains, becoming more sparse at higher elevations, and the forests where the mountain gorilla lives are often cloudy, misty and cold

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6 Comments

IsabellaFiers
IsabellaFiers 11 years ago

thank Joshua Harris and Gerardo,
they are indeed wonderful and peaceful animals, it's really worth to take the effort for going into the mountains and follow a family.
This is abolutely one of the great experiences I have ever had, really worth repeating!

Gerardo Aizpuru
Gerardo Aizpuru 11 years ago

Wow another fantastic encounter :):)

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 11 years ago

how are there only 3 comments? dude this is awesome! they look so docile and friendly. beautiful pics :)

IsabellaFiers
IsabellaFiers 11 years ago

Marta,
You are completely right that it is in there disadvantage to be confronted with people. Every day, fortunately only a small number of people admitted to the groups for a short time, you also have a significant amount to pay which is used to protect the families.
UWA rangers do their utmost to restrain poaching, day and night there is monitoring, the best is that they involve the local population in this project with payment. Unfortunately there are still poachers who try to kill these gentle animals which they sometimes succeed, last year there are some caught and convicted.
If you ever get the chance to see these unique creatures, I can assure you it is a memorable event in your life !

The MnMs
The MnMs 11 years ago

Wonderful! I hope they are well protected from poachers..the fact that they get used to humans runs into their disadvantage when people like that attacks them..I would love to visit them one day though :-)

Maria dB
Maria dB 11 years ago

very nice series and how great that you had the chance for this encounter!

IsabellaFiers
Spotted by
IsabellaFiers

Kanungu, Uganda

Spotted on Aug 2, 2010
Submitted on Jun 22, 2012

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