The impenetrable forest has in the past been commonly known as “Bwindi-Kay onza” which implies to a place of darkness which one meets when he enters this enchanting vegetation. Bwindi was first gazetted to a status of a forest reserve in 1932 and again as an animal sanctuary in 1961. Since 1961, the Forest department and Game department had a joint management of Bwindi until 1991 when the Uganda National parks took it over becoming a National Park.
Bwindi impenetrable National park is located in South Western Uganda on the edge of the Western rift valley. This thick forest covers 321 sq km and it lies along the Uganda Congo border,forming an intersection of Kisoro, Kabale and Rukungiri districts.
Nearly half the planet’s remaining mountain gorillas live within Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. It’s one of only three places in the world where travelers can see this critically endangered animals in the wild. Located in Southwestern Uganda, Bwindi covers 124 square miles (320 square kilometers) of plains and mountain forest famous for its biodiversity. Besides the iconic gentle giants, some 120 species of mammals, 348 species of birds and 202 species of butterflies live amid the 200 tree and 100 fern species.
While the park is a birdwatcher’s paradise (sighting 150 species in a single day isn’t uncommon) and has more mammal species than any of Uganda’s other national parks, visitors come to this UNESCO World Heritage site to track mountain gorillas. Each morning, trekkers head out into the forest in search of one of about a dozen gorilla families (between 300 and 400 individuals). Along with mountain gorillas, species in the park include the common chimpanzee, L’Hoest’s monkey, African elephant, African green broadbill, and cream-banded swallowtail, black and white colobus, red-tailed monkeys, vervets, the giant forest hog,[13] and small antelope species. There are also many carnivores, including the side-striped jackal, African golden cat, and African civet.
The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is old, complex, and biologically rich. Diverse species are a feature of the park and it became an UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its ecological importance. Among East African forests, Bwindi has some of the richest populations of trees, small mammals, birds, reptiles, butterflies, and moths.
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