More than half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas call Uganda home

Uganda rests on the East African plateau that lies entirely in the Nile basin. Climate varies depending on where people live. In Southern Uganda, it is wetter, with rain throughout the year. Northern Uganda has a dry climate and is more prone to droughts.

Even though this is a landlocked country, it has many large lakes, including Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert, and one of the world’s biggest lakes, Lake Victoria, in the south. Lake Victoria is so massive, it prevents the temperature from varying and helps increase rainfall.

Sir Winston Churchill visited Uganda in 1909 and called it “the Pearl of Africa.” Perhaps he nicknamed it this because of everything the country has to offer. From the highest mountain range in Africa—the Mountains of the Moon—to the mighty Nile, Uganda is filled with natural beauty.

So, it’s only natural that there’s a wide variety of wildlife and flora found here. This includes more than half of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas. 

The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda is home to approximately half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. Poaching, habitat loss, civil unrest, and disease all remain as major threats to gorilla populations, and as a result, accurate population numbers are critical to protect this species.