Kampala — THE Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has started habituating another group of gorillas in a bid to expand tourism in the southern part of the Bwindi National Park in south-western Uganda.

Habituation is the process through which gorillas get used to human presence without changing their wild character.

The director of conservation, Sam Mwandha, told The New Vision on Monday that habituation of the Bikingi gorilla group begun recently.

"It is too early to say when they will be able to accept human presence. We will probably be able to establish this in the next few months," Mwandha said.

Bikingi is the eighth group to be habituated out of the 34 found in Bwindi Forest in 20 years.

Recently, Nsongi, another gorilla group in the southern part of Bwindi, was habituated.

Other habituated groups include Bitukura, Mubare, Habinyanja, Nkuringo, Rushegura and Kyaguriro.

Gorilla tracking contributes between 40% and 50% of the tourism revenue.

Mwandha said after Bikingi, no more gorillas will be habituated until 2012.

More than half the 760 gorillas in the world are found in Bwindi.

The rest roam the mountains that straddle the DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.