A sub-adult male Mountain Gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei, looking up over vegetation in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest aka Bwindi Forest National Park in the south-west of Uganda. The location is on the border with the Virunga National Park in the DRC – the habitat is contiguous – and the gorillas, but not the tourists who wish to see them, are free to wander to and fro over the border. There is, however, unconfirmed scientific speculation that the Bwindi population is a separate subspecies.
Currently, there are eighteen Mountain Gorilla families which have been habituated for tourists, a process that can take up to two years, in Bwindi Forest, and one habituated family in Mgahinga National Park, which is further south and west, on the border with Rwanda.
Gorilla treks are very expensive, but the money is fed back into conservation, and support services for tourists, from hospitality to porters, helps local people and keeps them onboard in protecting the gorillas.
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