Found in the Rushaga sector, this group is made up of 9 members, including one lead Silverback. Busingye became a gorilla family of its own after experiencing a breakaway from the Kahungye family group. The split was initiated by Busingye, the silverback, who chose to break away from the main group in 2012 and form his own family.
“Busingye” in the local dialect is translated as ‘peace’, which is extremely surprising because Busingye is known as one of the most ambitious and aggressive silverbacks in all the gorilla groups in Bwindi National Park. He is famously known for picking fights with other silverbacks from different groups.
He loves to showcase his power, and with each encounter with a wild gorilla family, he mercilessly snatches a female or two to add to his own group. Busingye is always up for the challenge to protect his family from any intruders and will do whatever it takes to keep it intact. The Busingye gorilla family is comprised of 9 members, including 1 silverback, 5 black backs, and 3 infants.
However, the number of mountain gorillas in a family keeps changing due to new births, deaths, disappearances, and other gorillas splitting to form their own families. Gorilla permits to track the Busingye family can be purchased at UWA headquarters in Kampala, through a trusted tour operator, and at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park headquarters at USD$800 per permit. However, buying permits at the park headquarters is discouraged, and visitors are reminded to always book their gorilla permits in advance to avoid disappointments.
You are advised to arrive at the park headquarters early in the morning for a short briefing about gorilla trekking. Visitors are distributed into different groups of 8 people each, allocated a gorilla family to track. The briefing exercise takes about 30 minutes, after which you will head straight to penetrate the impenetrable forest.
This activity takes between 1 to 8 hours, depending on the movement of a particular gorilla family. The trekking time includes an hour of interaction with the gorillas, which will seem like a minute as you get lost in their amazement, fun, lifestyle, and their history and conservation stories as told by trackers and guides.
