Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is the famous destination for Uganda wildlife safaris situated in the southwestern part of Uganda at the border with the democratic republic of Congo. The park is characterized by thick vegetation comprising of green tropical rain forests with minimum temperature ranging from 7 to 15 degrees Celsius, and maximum at 12 to 27 degrees Celsius yearly. Bwindi rainfall ranges from 1400 to around 1900 millimeters with the highest rains received in March and April and September up to November annually.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park covers total areas of 321 square kilometers and its altitude range from 1160 meters to 2607 meters above sea level. The park is sheltered by thick vegetation of low land and montane forests. Bwindi Forest National park became a national park in 1991 and was later described as the UNESCO Natural World Heritage site in 1994 because of its ability to shelter fragile endangered Mountain Gorillas.

Bwindi is a popular destination for mountain gorillas in Uganda and it’s the home of more than half of the population of remaining mountain gorillas in the whole world. The first gorilla family in Bwindi National park was habituated and opened for tourism in 1993 and since then, the population of gorillas in this forest jungle has been constantly improving. Mountain gorillas are highly endangered and face a lot of challenges via poaching, deforestation, and other human illegal activities. With better conservation measures by the government of Uganda under the Uganda Wildlife Authority

there about 531 individual gorillas that live in over 28 gorilla families which 19 of the gorilla families are well habituated and opened for tourism.

Bwindi Impenetrable forest National features over 350 bird species, 225 butterfly species, and over 120 mammal species inclusive of primates such as Mountain gorillas,  vervet monkeys, chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, L-Hoest monkeys, Blue and white monkeys, olive baboons, and other mammals such as forest elephants, Giant forest Pigs, Duikers among others. Mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable forest National park is Uganda’s principal tourist attraction, and indeed one of the world’s most outstanding wildlife happenstances is tracking mountain gorillas via the remote Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.  Gorilla trekking in Bwindi is done in 4 sectors of the park which include Buhoma where the park headquarters located in the northern part of the park, Rushaga sector, and Nkuringo in the Southern part of the park, and Ruhija sector in the Eastern part of the park.

Other than mountain gorillas, visitors to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park can also take visit tours to scenic views of waterfalls and rift valley views as you traverse local community villages experience the culture of local people especially the Batwa and the Bakiga cultural trails.  Bwindi also offers a destination for birding over 345 species of birds. Some of the bird species include short-tailed warbler, Ruwenzori Batis, Chestnut-throated Apalises, mountain masked Apalis, western Green Tinkerbird among others. You can also encounter some forest buffaloes and elephants on your track to gorillas or for birding safaris.