Mgahinga national park
Mgahinga gorilla National Park happens to be a small park that covers 38sq km, Mgahinga national park happens to be part of the larger ecosystem plus the Virunga conservation area that covers 434sq km, which includes two adjacent parks in Rwanda and DR.Congo. Mgahinga national park sits at an altitude between 2,227m and 4,127m.
Mgahinga was gazetted to protect the rare mountain gorillas and the endangered golden monkeys. The three funnel shaped extinct volcanoes that lies along the border region of Uganda, Rwanda and DR.Congo in Mgahinga national park offers a great scenery that anyone would want to experience. Mgahinga gorilla national park forms part of the larger Virunga conservation area which happen to be adjacent parks in these countries.
Mgahinga gorilla national park is having a gently calming effect of majesty with cool temperatures outstanding to the mountainous nature of the park. Mgahinga park habitats part of the 300 mountain gorillas located in Virunga’s compact group of mountains.
At Mgahinga park, mountain gorillas happen to habitat the park with golden monkeys hence providing an extra view of great mammals as you track down gorillas hence enabling you to hike the dormant volcanoes to stand simultaneously on the border of Rwanda, Uganda and DR.Congo. Cultural heritage featuring folklore and traditional healing practices by the Batwa, cover the north slopes of the three northern Virunga volcanoes that is Muhavura, Gahinga and Sabinyo.
Mgahinga park derives it’s name from “gahinga” a kinyarwanda word meaning a pile of volcanic lava stone heaps around which cultivation done. Muhavura means a guide and Sabinyo means the old man’s teeth. It is bordered by DR.Congo in the west, and by Rwanda on it’s south.
Sabinyo is deeply eroded with rough shap points protruding, deep gorges and ravines, Gahinga is occupied by a swamp filled crater that covers around 180m wide at its summit, while at the top of Sabinyo you happen to set a foot in all the three countries that make this conservation area. I.e. Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo at the same time. It’s sight of the volcanoes and gorges with the cool breeze of freshness is better than everything of the same type.
As you move towards some of the steep mountain slopes, we happen to encounter caves formed by the steep mountain slopes, and these are formed by lava tubes, one of them being the famous Garama cave located near Ntebeko that happens to be the park headquarters.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park Recorded Species
The vegetation is the one typical of afro-Montane areas, with a consistent bamboo forest. There are 76 mammal species recorded, including Buffaloes, Elephants, Bush bucks, Golden monkeys, Leopards. 115 bird species have been recorded, including Rwenzori turacco, Crowned Horn bill, Black kite and crowned crane. Mgahinga hosts a population of golden monkeys and a few families of mountains gorillas called Nyakagezi a trans-boundary species to Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda.
