FAQ

All the mountain gorillas in the Virunga Region were once wild and untamed. They were not used to people being around them and then they were habituated and got used to the presence of human beings. The habituation is done by finding a wild gorilla family group, monitoring its movement around the park, studying its social behavior, and then taming or making friends to the people but left to behave naturally without putting restrictions to its movement, feeding and also looking for shelter in the forest.

The habituation takes some time like a year or more.  This is done by a team of experts which include the gorilla rangers and primatologists. When the gorilla family gets used to the presence of human beings, it becomes available for gorilla trekking. There are over 40 habituated gorilla families in all the mountain gorilla national parks in the world which found in Uganda, Rwanda, and Dr. Congo.

Before visitors set off for gorilla trekking, very early in the morning a team of gorilla locators is sent to the forests to look for the exact location where the various gorilla families to trek on that day slept. These are experts and very experienced personnel, park rangers. They first get to the location where the gorillas were last seen; keep on following their footprints or wastes and previous nest till they get hold of them. These set up GPS trackers that are connected to those of the gorilla trekking rangers and also stay around the gorillas to easily communicate with the gorilla rangers when they start off the gorilla trekking activity.

It’s actually very difficult to fail to locate the gorillas on your eventful Mountain Gorilla Trekking Expedition.

On the day of gorilla trekking, the visitors arrive at the national park headquarters very early in the morning at around 8:00 pm. They are taken through a briefing of the Dos and Don’ts of gorilla trekking. The gorilla permits are verified and the visitors are allocated to the various gorilla family groups available for the day’s trek based on their interests and physical fitness. You can either opt for the Easy, Medium, or Tough Gorilla Trek.

The gorilla families in the far areas are given to able-bodied persons the youth and those families near are given to less able-bodied in particular person in their twilight age.

8 people are allocated to trek each gorilla family on that day. The visitors get into their final preparation of the thriller by checking their hiking gear; a waterproof backpack, bottled drinking water, rain jacket, camera, and walking sticks among others.

The visitors are advised to hire porters to help them to carry the heavy packs because gorilla trekking is an energy-draining activity where a person walks for about 2-6 hours around the forest and also the terrain of the park is hilly. This might make it hell for the visitors to trek with the pack on their backs hence calling in the help of the porters to relieve them of the weight of the pack while trekking.

• A maximum of 8 people is allowed to trek a certain gorilla family on a particular day.
• Follow what the park rangers advise the trackers (visitors) to do
• Don’t litter around the natural environment. Keep your garbage in your pack if it needs immediate dumping seek advice from the park ranger to tell you where to drop it. On dumping it will be buried. This also applies to ease yourself.
• You should only walk on the demarcated trails while searching for the gorillas in their natural habitats
• The voices are always lowered while on the trek even when you reach the gorillas.
• While with the gorillas strictly one hour is given to the visitors to interact with them.
• Don’t mimic the gorillas when you see them
• A 7-meter social distance between the gorillas and the trackers must be observed and the trackers should not make unnecessary movements while with the gorillas.
• The flashlights of the cameras should be removed while capturing photos and videos of the gorillas since these apes are light-sensitive.
• Shouting or dubious colored clothes like yellow and red should be avoided while gorilla trekking. With the shouting clothes, the gorillas might take you for an enemy.
• In recent times, tourists should wear Masks when hiking and in the presence of mountain gorillas.

When the permits verification, briefing, and the allocation of the gorilla family are done, the visitors are handed over to the gorilla ranger to lead them through the jungle of the national park while searching the gorillas. The visitors with their ranger get to the starter point for gorilla trekking activity. Some walk to the start points since they are near the headquarters while others are driven to the start point as they are far away from the park headquarters.

At the start point, the visitors get into the jungle to search for the gorillas. These walk on steep demarcated trails so that they don’t destroy the natural environment. These trek through dense tropical rainforests, montane, and bamboo encountering various wildlife species and natural features. The common wild species met are the forest elephants, various species of monkeys, birds, and amazing tree species and natural features met are the rivers and streams, and valleys. While also trekking through the forest, the park rangers dive into the background story of the gorilla park and also the gorilla family to trek. The trackers normally have a meal break where they eat their packed lunch and some refreshments. These carry edibles and have meal breaks because the searching of the gorillas takes to 2-8 hours which is a long time to stay without a meal.

After a long trek through the hilly forests, the trackers meet the gorillas. Here the visitors are always welcomed by the dominant silverback who stares at them intelligently with fierce eyes. The alpha male does the latter to know whether an enemy has invaded his family or not. When the scrutiny is done from the silverback, it lets the trackers feel at home by alerting its members that all is well. The gorillas get back to their business of feeding, nurturing, teasing, and playing around.

The visitors make observations of the social behavior of the mountain gorillas with the way they treat their young ones, the communication among themselves, and also their abilities to use the available tools like tree branches, sticks, and leaves to feed and also make their nests. Their intriguing social behavior always leaves the visitors in trance wondering about their intelligence. The visitors also take photos and videos of the gorillas while interacting with them.

After one hour of interaction, visitors lead out of the forests and get to the headquarters or start point; receive a Certificate of participation and meet with their safari driver guides to take them back to their lodges / next destinations. This is the end part of the gorilla trekking experience.

A visitor cannot fully know the trek to see the mountain gorillas without knowing; All about the mountain gorillas (what they are and where to go to see the gorillas). With the visitor dipping him/her with some information about the mountain gorillas that is when he/she can completely understand how the trek to see the mountain gorilla is like.

About the mountain gorillas

Mountain gorillas are only a subspecies of gorillas belonging to the eastern gorilla species. The mountain gorillas are the most popular subspecies of gorillas in the eco-tourism world. This is because these were the first gorilla subspecies to be open for tourism and these are the most trekked among all the subspecies of the gorillas. The mountain gorillas are found in the two detached locales of Virunga massif straddled by Rwanda, Uganda, and Dr. Congo and Bwindi impenetrable national park in Uganda, and these habitats are all located in the central east tropical rainforest region.

The mountain gorillas are endangered species under the red list of the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN). There are a few left of these huge apes (about 1006 individuals) in the wild and this implies that they are about to get extinct in the forthcoming generations if not protected and conserved. This is why the three gorilla habitat countries of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo came with the strategy of making the world know the importance of the mountain gorillas in the ecosystem by coming up with the gorilla trekking experience. The gorilla trekking experience is an eco-tourism-based experience where the environment is given first priority as well as the local communities around these natural environments.

There are three countries that have the natural habitats of mountain gorillas and these are Uganda, Rwanda, and Dr. Congo. These countries have gazetted natural environments of gorillas into national parks where tourists can see and enjoy them.

Uganda has two gorilla national parks.  The Bwindi Impenetrable national park is the most popular gorilla habitat and also has almost half of the total population of mountain gorillas. This is located in the southwest part of the country in the Kigezi region. It is 9 hours’ drive away from Kampala the capital of Uganda.  Mgahinga is the other gorilla perk in Uganda. It is located on the Virunga massif at the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and Dr. Congo and this has the fewest gorillas and this is evidenced by the one gorilla family habituated in the park.

Rwanda has one national park in volcanoes national park located in the northwest part of the country in Ruhegheri 2 hours away from Kigali the capital of Rwanda. This has about 320 mountain gorillas in its perch and this is a destination that is most sought after by luxury travelers.

Dr. Congo has Virunga national park which is the least visited gorilla park due to the endless instabilities in the area. This Park is also found on the Virunga massif just like Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga National Park in Uganda.