A group of rare gorillas that disappeared from a Ugandan reserve last year - sparking rumors they had been snatched and taken to neighboring Rwanda - have been spotted again.

After a five-month absence, the endangered mountain gorillas returned last week to their forest home in southwest Uganda's Mgahinga National Park and with two new additions, Uganda Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa said Friday.

``They went eight but they have returned 10 with a new baby and another individual,'' he said.

The so-called ``Nyakagezi group'' of mountain gorillas - the species made famous by late naturalist Dian Fossey - had trundled out of the park in November.

Although experts said the gorillas, which are known to roam in a 25-kilometer radius in search of food, had likely left on their own volition, their disappearance proved a boon for conspiracy theorists. Because their presence was a lucrative tourist draw for Uganda there was speculation that people in Rwanda might have somehow lured them over the frontier to boost visitor numbers there.

Mapesa would not say how much money Uganda had lost during the months of their absence but admitted that numerous would-be gorilla watchers had cancelled trips to Mgahinga.

Tourists pay US$360 (HK$2,800) per day to track the gorillas and spend one hour watching them in their natural habitat, where about 700 are believed to live.

Mountain gorillas are found in the wild only in the forest enclave that straddles Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), although tourists generally avoid the DRC due to security problems.

Uganda and Rwanda have thus competed for years as a gorilla-watching destination with each country claiming to be the best place to see them.

In Uganda, there is generally a one-year waiting list to see them in Mgahinga and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, but the re-appearance of the Nyakagezi group is unlikely to speed the process in the short-run, Mapesa said.

``Before we allow tourists there, we have to study the group until we are satisfied that it is ready for people in its midst,'' he said. ``It's been some time since they have been in proximity with humans.''

Once the wildlife experts have finished their study, the group will become the fifth mountain gorilla family in Uganda that tourists will be allowed to visit. The other four are in the Bwindi park. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE