Gorilla trekking in Ruhija

About Ruhija

In all the gorilla sectors in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, the Ruhija gorilla sector is one of the finest sectors. Located at the extreme eastern part of Bwindi, Ruhija is an untamed jungle that hides the secrets of the park. Ruhija is usually mentioned as one of the best birding destinations or areas in Bwindi. It is no doubt a popular birding destination and a delicacy for birders.

The Ruhija sector is an undefeated sector when it comes to its strength as a popular enweaving adventure experience. The scenic beauty of Ruhija speaks for itself and is arguably the best for sunrise sightings. This is because it is located on the eastern side of the park.

Its strategic location is not limited to nature’s call only for the sunrise, but also an easy connection to other parks of the untamed Uganda, hidden gems like the southern side of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Visitors on a safari across the country can connect easily from Queen Elizabeth’s Ishasha sector, popular for the tree-climbing lions. This sector tells a connecting blend from the animated savannah grassland and woodland to the Afro-montane tropical forest highlands.

Gorilla trekking in Ruhija sector

Gorilla trekking in Ruhija is an intimate celebration of primate life, in a private sighting under dense canopies. Ruhija is the least visited sector in Bwindi compared to other sectors since it is located close to the Buhoma gorilla sector, which has better infrastructure. Therefore, visitors prefer to stop in Buhoma rather than manoeuvring the relatively substandard infrastructure. Therefore, this favours Ruhija by offering private gorilla trekking adventures for the selected few visitors.

Much to the gorilla trekking experience in the Ruhija sector, visitors always have the sector to themselves when trekking, since there are fewer crowds. Ruhija, among all the other sectors of Bwindi, hosts fewer gorilla families. This makes the gorilla trekking permits limited per day, since only eight people are allowed to trek a particular gorilla family per day. The Ruhija gorilla sector is estimated to have only 4 gorilla families. Therefore, mathematically, that’s 32 available gorilla trekking permits per day in Ruhija.

Ruhija gorilla sector should not be boxed in on the gorilla trekking adventure alone, no, this sector offers other extraordinary activities for visitors to explore. It is better, therefore, for visitors to exhaust their time in Ruhija by exploring its uncharted jungles following these activities. Some of the other activities to do in Ruhija include;

• Bird watching along designated trails
• Guided nature walks
• Batwa cultural tours
• Exploring Lake Bunyonyi, etc.

Looking back, the gorilla trekking experience in the Ruhija gorilla sector focuses on the mountain gorillas. Ruhija, in its capacity, is responsible for hosting over a quarter of the estimated total number of mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

What are the gorilla families in the Ruhija gorilla sector?

From the last census of mountain gorillas in Bwindi, researchers, scientists, and rangers monitoring these primates in Ruhija found that there are just about 4 gorilla families in Ruhija. These gorilla families account for about a quarter of the total population in Bwindi. Below are the four gorilla families located in this sector.

Oruzogo gorilla family

When talking about gorilla families in Ruhija, the Oruzogo gorilla family always rings first. This is because it was once the largest gorilla family in the whole sector for a while. The growth of this gorilla family was highly attributed to the resilience of the silverback Tibirikwata, who was the ultimate head of the whole group from the time of its habituation in 2011. The habituation of this gorilla group took about 3 years to collect.

From the good leadership and strong character of the silverback Tibirikwata, the Oruzogo gorilla family had grown to over 19 members. However, with a large number of members, internal fights became common, leading to the official splitting of this group. The split was engineered by the silverback Kasimali, who built trust and a following in the family before working away with 9 members to start a new family. By the time of the sighting of the Oruzogo gorilla family, it was beside the Oruzogoto, a local tree in Ruhija, hence the naming of this family. The friendly character of the family members in this group is one of the factors that bonds visitors with this family.

Bitukura gorilla family

Unique among gorilla families, the Bitukura family hosts over 4 silverbacks who live together in perfect peace. As it is known that a family cannot have more than one head, Bitukura in this case has 4. However, not all these silverbacks are decision makers, no. The dominant silverback among these is one and is in charge of protection and reproduction. This gorilla family was first sighted along the Bitukura River. This river flows through the sector, offering constant water, and this is how this family was named after this river.

With over 24 members from the time the Bitukura gorilla family’s habituation was started in 2006, this family had about 24 members. The dominant silverback, Ndahura, ruled this family for many years until December 18^th, 2016, when he breathed his last. Mugisha is the silverback that took over the leadership of this family following the death of Ndahura. The group dropped some members along the way and is currently standing with 13 strong members.

Mukiza gorilla family

Still part of the Ruhija gorilla sector, the Mukiza gorilla family is the newly formed gorilla group. This group is quite shy and loves the dense forest canopies, a unique feature for this family. The formation of this family is not until May 2016, when it split from the bigger Kyaguriro gorilla group. It was actually first named Kyaguriro B, since it was a rib of the larger Kyaguriro. This group later adopted the name Mukiza after its dominant silverback. This family currently hosts over 19 members and is a popular group for the researchers. It is usually monitored by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Kyaguriro gorilla family

The Kyaguriro gorilla family was one of the first gorilla groups to be habituated in the Ruhija gorilla sector in 1995. By the time of its habituation, this group was mainly used for research purposes. Kyaguriro was under the leadership of Zeus, the silverback, but later died, leaving the group to the leadership of Rukina, another silverback that was part of this family. This group is one of the smallest in this sector, after it split in 2016 into another group, Kyaguriro B. This group later became Mukiza, named after the silverback.