The Bweza gorilla family is one of the 21 habituated gorilla families that call Bwindi Impenetrable National Park their home readily available for trekking. Bweza gorilla family was initially a joint family with the Nshongi gorilla family which was the biggest gorilla group to be habituated in the Rushaga gorilla sector. This gorilla family split away from the Nshongi gorilla family by the end of 2013 due to increased rivalry amongst the silverback gorillas that were in the Nshongi group by then. The Bweza gorilla family was named after a dominant silverback known as Bweza who was the leader of the Nshongi gorilla family from where the Bweza gorilla family broke from with Kakono as its family head. This gorilla family is currently under the leadership of Rurehuka silverback who took over from Kakono silverback that had started aging and weakening.
Location of the family
Bweza gorilla family is found in Rushaga gorilla sector situated in the southern section of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park located in the southwestern part of the country. The Rushaga sector is one of the four gorilla sectors that make up Bwindi Impenetrable National Park a renowned home to the giant apes harboring half of the world’s remaining mountain gorilla population. The Rushaga gorilla sector is named after a village “Rushaga” where this sector is situated and other sectors include Buhoma in the north, Ruhija in the east and Nkuringo in the south just a few kilometers from Rushaga. Other than Bweza gorilla family, the Rushaga gorilla sector houses other gorilla families namely Nshongi gorilla family, Mishaya gorilla family, Kahungye gorilla family, Busingye gorilla family, Bikingi gorilla family, Kutu gorilla family, Rwiigi gorilla family and Mucunguzi gorilla family.
Current family members
Bweza gorilla family is currently composed of 14 family members including 3 silverbacks, 1 blackback, 4 adult females, 1 sub-adult male, 1 sub-adult female, 1 juvenile and 3 infants. However these family numbers keep changing over time due to reasonable number of factors that arouse amongst the family members for example new births, deaths, immigrations to and from the family.