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Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Uganda’s smallest national park - just 34 km². The park is breathtakingly beautiful - Mgahinga is at the frontier of Uganda's wilderness experiences.
Introducing Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park sits high in the clouds, at an altitude of between 2,227m and 4,127m. As its name suggests, it was created to protect the rare mountain gorillas that inhabit its dense forests, and it is also an important habitat for the endangered golden monkey. As well as being important for wildlife, the park also has a huge cultural significance, in particular for the indigenous Batwa pygmies. This tribe of hunter-gatherers was the forest’s “first people”, and their ancient knowledge of its secrets remains unrivaled.
Mgahinga’s most striking features are its three conical, extinct volcanoes, part of the spectacular Virunga Range that lies along the border region of Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda. Mgahinga forms part of the much larger Virunga Conservation Area which includes adjacent parks in these countries. The volcanoes’ slopes contain various ecosystems and are biologically diverse, and their peaks provide a striking backdrop to this gorgeous scenery. Mgahinga boasts of over 76 mammals which include elephants, giant forest hog, bush pigs,bush back. Buffalos, leopards, A bird checklist of over 180 species including the 14 endemic Albertine rift notably the Kivu ground thrush and turaco.
Experience the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Wildlife 
Birdlife
Wildlife at the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
The verdant and tropical slopes and inclines of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park do not only hide gorillas as its name suggests. The local word, ‘gahinga’, refers to the array of volcanic rock found dotted around the various bases of the park’s three extinct volcanoes. Forming part of the Virunga Conservation Area that straddles Rwanda and the DRC, Mgahinga is one of only two places in Uganda that is a habitat for the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The park is small and much of the original Afro-montane forest has been lost to felling and cultivation, but the biodiversity remains high. There are 76 recorded mammal species. The most charismatic of these is the mountain gorilla and the golden monkey. One gorilla family is habituated, but several move between Uganda and Rwanda. The golden monkey, a playful and distinctive species found only in the Virungas numbers between 3,000 and 4,000, with about 60 being habituated to human contact in Mgahinga. Other notable species are black and white colobus monkey, leopard, elephant, giant forest hog, bushpig, black-fronted duiker, and buffalo.
Birdlife at the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla NP boasts over 180 bird species including 14 Albertine rift endemics including the beautiful Rwenzori turaco, handsome francolin, Rwenzori batis, Kivu ground-thrush, Blue-headed weaver, Black-collared apalis, Dusky crimsonwing, Red-throated alethe, and the Regal sunbird etc. While on your Uganda birding safari in Mgahinga national park, most birding is done along the 6km Sabinyo gorge trail. Other trails for spotting birds in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park include the bamboo trail, the Buffalo wall trail, the border trail, and birds like the Paradise flycatcher, Yellow-vented bulbul, Doherty’s bush-shrike, Western tinker bird, etc.
Avifauna is less diverse, with a current species list of 115 birds. The list includes the Ibis, Pin-tailed Whydah, Speckled Mousebird, Stone Chat, Grey-capped Warbler, Wax Bills, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Firefinch, White-naped Raven, Black Kite, Rwenzori Turaco, Blue-headed Coucal, Paradise Fly-catcher, Rwenzori Batis, Double-collared Sunbird, Rwenzori Nightjar. Of these, several are localised forest specialists and 12 are Albertine Rift endemics.
Best time to visit Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga is 14km on rough roads from the town of Kisoro, the entry point to southern Bwindi. Kisoro is best accessed using a scheduled light aircraft flight from Entebbe. Daily departures take about 90 minutes. Alternatively, Kisoro can be reached by road from Entebbe/Kampala - a long day drive of 10 hours or 5/6 hours from Lake Mburo National Park.
Due to Uganda’s equatorial position and an increasingly variable climate, you should always expect rain when visiting Uganda. However, the heaviest rainfall normally occurs from mid- March to the end of May and then again at the end of September through to November. While the rains in March to May are often short, those in September to November are more often characterised by hours of soft drizzle. Gorillas can be tracked at any time of year, but it does become harder when the trails are mud-slides and water is running down your neck, soaking you through. So the most popular times to track the gorillas is the drier months of June to mid-September and December, January and February.
But don’t discount the ‘rainy season’. Permits are easier to come by at relatively short notice and there is something exhilarating about sitting, mud-covered and uncaring, among a group of gorillas, feeling like you are the only people in the forest.
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