Publication date: Tuesday, 25th October, 2005
By Gerald Tenywa
GORILLAS near Buhoma village around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park have given birth to 13 babies in about a year.
Park officials said the latest birth occurred about two weeks ago in one of the three habituated groups at Buhoma known as Mubare.
Habituation is a delicate process through which gorillas get used to human presence but retain their wild character.
Apart from Mubare, which has three babies, Habinyanja and rushegura, which are open to tourists, each have five babies.
They also said a naming ceremony was underway to ensure monitoring of the apes and to popularise gorilla tourism.
However, there are several wild groups roaming the park, which often fight with the habituated groups over food and mates.
Bwindi has more than half the population of the endangered Mountain gorilla population, estimated at about 750 globally and is a top tourism destination.
Other gorillas live in the Virunga Mountains that straddle Uganda (Mgahinga), Rwanda and the DRC.
Nabagereka Sylvia nagginda, who viewed the Mubare group last week, is one of the high-profile trackers of gorillas.
Kanungu district officials asked Nagginda to convince the Kabaka to visit the area.
President Yoweri museveni and Bill Gates, the US-based Microsoft mogul, are some of the high-profile persons that have tracked the gorillas.
Uganda Wildlife authority (UWA) spokesperson Lillian Nsubuga said about 11,000 permits would be issued in a year to gorilla viewers.
Another baby in the Rushegura group was produced in April, said James Busiku, UWA’s official at Bwindi.
Other babies were born earlier this year, but UWA officials are wary of high mortality among babies, which had delayed the naming ceremony.
“We have to confirm that the baby gorillas will not succumb to death before we give them names,” Busiku said.
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