The Mubare group holds a unique place in Uganda’s gorilla conservation history. Habituated in 1991 as the first gorilla group in Uganda to receive trekking visitors, it has been at the centre of the Bwindi tourism model for over three decades. It has also survived what was, at the time, the most serious disease crisis in the history of habituated mountain gorilla management — a respiratory illness outbreak in 2011 that killed two members and threatened others, and which produced a fundamental reassessment of disease prevention protocols across all habituated groups in Uganda and Rwanda.
The First Habituated Group
The Mubare group’s habituation in 1991 was an experiment as much as a conservation strategy. The idea that wild mountain gorillas could be brought to sufficient tolerance of human proximity to allow regular tourist visits had been demonstrated in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, but Uganda had no equivalent programme. The International Gorilla Conservation Programme, working with Uganda’s park management, selected the Mubare group for the first habituation because of its accessible location near Buhoma and the relatively manageable personality of its dominant silverback.
The habituation process took two years. By 1993 the group was receiving its first paying visitors, generating the revenue that would eventually fund the expansion of the habituation programme to the multiple groups that Bwindi now maintains. The Mubare group was, in this sense, the proof of concept that built the entire Uganda gorilla trekking industry.
The 2011 Disease Outbreak
In early 2011 the Mubare group experienced a respiratory illness outbreak that progressed rapidly through multiple group members. The illness was consistent with a human respiratory pathogen — a finding that generated significant concern, given that human-to-gorilla disease transmission is one of the primary risk factors associated with habituated groups that receive regular human visitors. Two group members died. Three others required veterinary treatment.
The outbreak triggered a comprehensive review of disease prevention protocols. The rules that gorilla trekking visitors operate under in 2027 — the seven-metre minimum distance, the prohibition on visiting when ill, the mandatory face mask requirement — were strengthened significantly in response to the 2011 outbreak. Visitor health screening was introduced. The number of daily visitors per group was reviewed. Research into the specific transmission routes of human respiratory pathogens to great apes informed a set of procedural changes that have since been adopted across all habituated gorilla sites in East and Central Africa.
Recovery and Continuity
The Mubare group recovered. The surviving members reconstituted a stable family unit under a new dominant silverback — the previous dominant male had died during the outbreak — and the group has been reproducing successfully since. In 2027 it numbers approximately fourteen individuals and continues to receive trekking visitors at Buhoma sector.
The 2011 outbreak is a permanent part of the group’s history and of Uganda’s gorilla conservation record. The protocols it produced protect every gorilla trekking visitor’s interaction with habituated groups today. The gorilla permit costs $800. The rules that accompany it — the distance, the mask, the health declaration — are not bureaucratic formalities. They are the direct legacy of what happened to the Mubare family in 2011, and they are what keeps it from happening again.
