Which Ugandan national park is a sanctuary for mountain gorillas?

Which Ugandan national park is a sanctuary for mountain gorillas? The answer is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

In southwestern Uganda, this protected area preserves part of the ancient Bwindi Impenetrable Forest along the Albertine Rift, near the borders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its steep terrain, dense vegetation and difficult footpaths give the forest its “impenetrable” name.

The park is one of the world’s most important refuges for the endangered mountain gorilla. The Bwindi population represents roughly half of the species’ global population, while the rest lives mainly in the nearby Virunga Mountains. Carefully regulated gorilla trekking provides tourism revenue for conservation and local communities.

Bwindi became a national park in 1991 and was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. It is much more than a gorilla sanctuary: the forest also supports chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, forest elephants, rare birds, butterflies and exceptionally diverse plant life.

A common mix-up is choosing Virunga or Volcanoes National Park. Both protect mountain gorillas, but Virunga is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Volcanoes is in Rwanda; Bwindi is the Ugandan answer.