Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is renowned for its population of endangered mountain gorillas and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In total Bwindi forest has 21 families in four different sectors with Ruhija as one of the four sectors in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest situated in the Eastern part of the forest where Kyaguriro gorilla family resides. The sector is easily accessible from Buhoma and Kabale and notably the only sector with Elephants present. Ruhija is known for its beautiful scenery, including lush forests, waterfalls, and panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.
Kyaguriro gorilla family is one of the four gorilla families in the Ruhija sector in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Habituated in 1995, the group was headed by Zeus who was later overthrown by Rukina leaving Zeus to go to exile until he died. Unfortunately Rukina also died later in 2015 after he was hit by lightning; however during his reign there was peace as the group was happy and content. With Rukina gone, Rukara become the new dominant head which had the group dealing with a lot of drama as members like Mukiza didn’t feel he was right to head the group. This forced the group to split into two groups with Rukara as head for the original group and Mukiza the head of the group that broke away from the original group.
Kyaguriro gorilla family has 15 members including 2 silverbacks. Much as the family has been fully habituated, it is not visited by tourists as the group is only utilized for research purposes with several adult females, juveniles, and infants. Since it was habituated, this particular family has provided researchers with a lot of information about mountain gorillas in Bwindi forest. Due to the in-depth interaction, researchers have observed differences between the mountain gorillas in Bwindi and those in Virunga.