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Gorillas Trekking (or gorilla tracking) |
Emotional, extraordinary, mystical, magic experience... these,
most certainly, will be some of the words you will use, when,
almost speechless, you will try to tell how you felt on your
first encounter with the Mountain Gorillas.For other animals click here
For Itineraries click here
But what are Mountain Gorillas? They are one of the three races of the species called Gorilla. The other two are the eastern and western lowland gorillas.
Gorillas are huge creatures, up to 200 kilos, incredibly strong and surprisingly gentle and peaceful. There are between 50,000 and 100,000 gorillas, all living in central Africa. The vast majority of them is the western lowland gorillas, while there are only 700 mountain gorillas left on the planet, making them a critically endangered species, risking extinction.
The reasons for this dramatically low number are mainly the extensive and unregulated poaching in the past and the progressive deforestation of their natural habit used for agriculture. Still now, the fate of the gorillas is closely linked to the political and economical situation of the region.
But, don't panic: thanks to the tourism, international support and extensive sensitizations campaigns, the number of mountain gorillas is steadily growing and, although they are not out of danger yet, their future looks much better than just few years ago.
It
is interesting that mountain gorillas were unknown to Europeans
until the beginning of last century. The first were discovered
in 1902. But it is only with George Schaller in the 50s that
a methodical study of their behaviour started and it is finally
in the 60s and 70s that they got notoriety through the amazing
work Dian Fossey. Probably the most well known best-seller
on gorillas is “Gorillas in the Mist”, the diary
of Dian Fosey, and the homonym film in the 80s. Mountain gorillas live in a very small area at the border between Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. They can be easily recognized from the other two races of gorilla for their longer and thicker coat. Generally they live in groups of 7 to 20 individuals, but anything from 5 to 50 is normal. Their diet is essentially vegetarian with the exception for some insects like ants that they eat as source of proteins. A silverback is a sexual mature male, so called because its back turns into colour silver when he is around 15 years old. Troops are generally formed by one dominant silverback, sometimes 1 or 2 subordinate silverbacks, 3 or 4 females and youngsters. The females, move easily from one troop to another, however they normally stay loyal to one male when they give birth with him. They are very sedentary animals and only walk an average 1km per day. However, they never stay in the same place for more than 2 nights. This is to preserve the habitat and avoid to attract predators like leopards that might attack their babies. Gorillas can live up to 50 years. Although gorillas are extremely gentle animals, only the habituated troops can be approached. Habituation is a necessary step in order to get close to them, mostly because for thousands of years humans hunted them for food and much more regrettably to collect souvenirs like hands or heads.
It must be said that gorillas essentially don't have natural enemies... apart from humans!
There are around 15 troops of mountain gorillas are habituated to humans. Trekking them is a relatively easy activity and everyone reasonably fit should be able to do it.
Trekking generally starts around 8am in the morning, the rangers
will brief the party explaining few very important rules.
These include among others, never getting closer than 8 meters
to the gorillas, never sneeze facing them, never eat or drink
in their presence, etc. All rules make perfect sense and they
are mostly for the protection of the gorillas as they might
be vulnerable to human diseases. For your peace of mind, trekking gorillas is a totally save activity: there is no reported case of a tourist injured by a habituated gorilla. This should give enough reinsurance even to the more cautious of you.
There are currently 4 places where you can trek gorillas: Bwindi National Park, Mgahinga National Park, Virunga National Park on the Rwandan side and Virunga National Park on the Congolese side.
The first step to go trekking is to get a permit. In Bwindi it is generally very difficult to get one as the UWA (Ugandan Wildlife Authority) sells permits up to 3 years in advance and in many cases it is impossible to get them with less than 3 or 4 months advance. Mgahinga, on the border with Congo, unfortunately does not have a permanently resident population, as the gorillas tend to cross the border during the year and trekking is not allowed when they are in Congo. Getting permits in Virunga on the Rwandan side generally is a good solution, however permits will need to be booked via Rwanda, making it sometimes tricky. Finally, a very new option is to book them for the Congolese part of the Virunga National Park. This is the most easily accessible park, only 16 kilometres from Kisoro in Uganda, the cheapest and, most important, the easiest to get a permit, as it only opened in 2004 and the demand for permits here is still very low.
Gorilla permits certainly are not very cheap, costing between $335 and $410, but to say the truth, after seeing the gorillas, no one ever complains that it was too expensive.
Gorillas as easy to track and chances to see them are close to 100%. This can take anything from 30 minutes to 6 hours, But generally one or two hours are enough to locate them.
Mountain gorillas, probably only like dolphins are really interested in humans. They will get very curious and will observe tourists in everything they do, thinking probably how strange humans are. When I went to trek them in Mgahinga I remember a lady gorilla who literally staring at me in my eyes for minutes and minutes. I wandered thousands times what she was thinking and I had a very strong feeling that she was thinking exactly the same of me “what is he thinking and why did he come here to look at me?”. That was one of the best and most emotional days of my life.
Gorillas are currently a fundamental component of the tourist industry in Uganda. 10% of the fee collected with the permits is devolved to local communities, but more important, gorillas create the need for hotels and other structures that are a big source of capitals. So, far from being a sad and commercial attraction like a zoo, trekking gorillas is the major factor contributing to their survival and at the same time is helping local communities to progress and improve their conditions.
In conclusion, trekking gorillas is a good example of successful sustainable tourism, without forgetting that it is one of the most amazing attractions on Earth!
By Ivan D'Ambrosio