Gorilla tourism a double-edged sword in Volcano National Park.-Prime Uganda Safaris & Tours Safari updates

BABYGorilla Safaris in Rwanda are on a run due to Mountain gorillas which are the most critically endangered of all great apes. There are only 800 mountain gorillas in the wild, and 280 of them are in Rwanda’s Volcano Park. The rest are in neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite Volcano National Park’s relatively small size of 62 square miles and a high level of human habitation surrounding it, Rwanda has built up a thriving mountain gorilla population, as well as a booming business in gorilla tourism. In 1999, 417 tourists visited Rwanda’s gorillas, and by 2010 that number had increased to 23,000. With each tourist paying the park a fee of $500, that earns the park considerable income of $11.5 million. To keep the tourism sustainable, the national park, working with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation and the WWF, has substantially reduced the level of poaching, and is now counting rising numbers of its gorilla population. This has helped in conserving the mountain gorillas and hence increasing on gorilla adventures. “Dian Fossey was not in favour of tourism, but now we are convinced that controlled tourism can be beneficial to the gorillas,” said Felix Ndagijimana, acting director of the Karisoke Research Centre, the Rwandan program of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. The gorillas are protected from poaching and are monitored by veterinarians. The gorillas habituated to human tourists have higher reproductive rates than wild gorillas and better overall health. “Without tourism, those gorillas would probably be gone,” said Ndagijimana. It’s not easy to get gorillas to live so close to human populations. The humans, who are attracted by the super fertile volcanic soil, farm right up to the park boundaries. Traditionally, they would hunt wildlife by setting snares. But the parks have persuaded most to stop. Five percent of the amount raised by the parks in gorilla tourism goes to the local community, and pays for electricity, schools, roads and other improvements. In addition, local residents are hired to tend the park and to seek out and remove snares. Such conservation given to the Gorilla in Volcano National Park has led to increased gorilla safaris to Rwanda. Uganda Safaris/ Uganda Safari News Prime Uganda Safaris & Tours ltd  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WHERE CAN YOU FIND & SEE GORILLAS IN UGANDA AFRICA?

Image
Uganda has only two national parks where one can see gorillas i.e Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and this is where g orilla trekking in Uganda is done to search and find  the rear endangered Mountain Gorillas . With about 1063 mountain gorillas that still exist on earth today, Uganda is home to more than half of all these endangered Great Apes making it one of the only 3 countries in the world where mountain gorillas live and Uganda gorilla tours are only done in there two national parks. Uganda has 20 gorilla families that have been habituated and already set for tourism purposes , 19 of which are tracked/found in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and only 1 is found in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is one  of the places where you can see Gorillas in Uganda Africa. The appropriately named Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (also called “The Place of Darkness”) is the world’s premier ...
Read more

Mountain Gorilla Behavior,Diet,Threats and Predators

http://www.primeugandasafaris.com/gorilla-safaris/5-days-uganda-gorilla-safari.html Behavior  Although strong and powerful, gorillas are generally gentle,shy ,retiring rather than ferocious and treacherous . They live in groups of 2-40 individuals, averaging about 11. Groups are led by a dominant male, the Silverback, named for the silvery gray hairs that grow when the male matures. The Silverback serves as the chief leader and protector of the group, to whom all group members defer. He decides when and where to go, rest and sleep, arbitrates disputes among his family members and protects them from rival Silverbacks or human predators. Gorillas usually seeks no trouble but will valiantly defend its family group if threatened. An adult male called a silverback named for the silvery gray hairs on its back normally leads each group, serving as its chief protector and defender. Gorillas ...
Read more