Plan Your Trip
Gorilla Tracking
Nothing quite prepares you for the moment when you come upon a gorilla family in the wild; the first glimpse of black as a juvenile jumps off a nearby branch, a toddler clings to its mother’s back and a giant silverback rises to size you up. No bars, no windows – you’re a humble guest in their domain. Coming face to face with mountain gorillas is one of life’s great experiences. And we'll help you make it happen.
At a Glance
Best for Seeing Gorillas
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda)
Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda)
Best for Independent Travellers
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda)
Parc National des Virungas (DRC)
Dry Season
When December to February, June to August
Advantages Generally dry weather
Disadvantages Permits more difficult to obtain
Wet Season
When March to May, September to November
Advantages Fewer visitors so permits easier to obtain; permits cheaper at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park; generally easier to track gorillas
Disadvantages Can be extremely wet
Cheapest Permits
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda): US$350 in April, May, October and November
Parc National des Virungas (DRC): US$465
Planning Your Trip
When to Go?
Any time you can. The experience will be incredible no matter when you go, but there are advantages to going at different times of the year.
It’s generally easier to track gorillas in the rainy seasons (March to May and September to November) because they hang out at lower altitudes. You may also get better photos in the rainy season, assuming it isn’t raining at the time you’re with the gorillas, because they love to sunbathe after getting wet. Then again, you’ll need to be wearing some serious wet-weather gear.
The busiest times on the mountains are December to February and July to August. Scoring permits takes more effort during these months, but that won’t matter if a tour company is handling things for you.
Booking Ahead
Permits are required to visit the gorillas and booking ahead is always a good idea, particularly if you’re planning to visit Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park from December to February or July to August. If you aren’t travelling in these months and you only have a very small window of opportunity, you should still make a reservation as far in advance as possible to be safe.
To make a phone booking for Rwanda, you need to pay a deposit by bank transfer, while in Uganda you’ll need to provide all the money up front. If you can’t get a permit on your own, you’ll need to go through a tour operator, which is often a good idea anyway. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), you can book online.
Required Fitness Levels
With the combination of mud, steep hills and altitude, gorilla tracking is hard work. Although gorillas sometimes wander near the visitor centres and might be found quickly, you’re far more likely to be hiking for two to four hours, and some trackers have wandered across the mountains for an entire day.
What to Bring
For the most part, you don’t need anything special beyond the usual outdoor essentials such as sunscreen, insect repellent, and food and water (enough for the whole day, just in case). Good boots are important. Some people like rubber boots because they keep the mud and fire ants at bay, but they have no ankle support. Plan for rain no matter what month you’re tracking (you’ll be in a rainforest after all). It’s also often chilly in the morning, so you might want a warm top.
You may have to trudge through thorns and stinging nettle, so trousers and long-sleeve shirts with some degree of heft may save you some irritation. For the same reason, garden gloves can come in handy.
Finally, bring your passport with you on tracking day; you’ll need it during registration.
Costs
For most of the year, demand for gorilla-tracking permits far outstrips supply: permits cost the following:
ARwanda US$750
AUganda US$600
ADRC US$465
The price includes park entry, guides and armed escorts, while porters are available for a little extra. These people are paid very little, and work hard, so they will expect a small tip.
RULES FOR GORILLA TRACKING
AAnyone with an illness cannot track the gorillas. In Rwanda you’ll get a full refund if you cancel because of illness and produce a doctor’s note, while in Uganda, you’ll get back half.
AEating and smoking near the gorillas is prohibited.
AIf you have to cough or sneeze, cover your mouth and turn your head.
AFlash photography is banned; turn off the autoflash.
ASpeak quietly and don’t point at the gorillas or make sudden movements; they may see these as threats.
ALeave nothing in the park; you shouldn’t even spit.
AKeep a few metres back from the gorillas and promptly follow your guide’s directions about where to walk.
AWhen faced with 200kg of charging silverback, never, ever run away…crouch down until he cools off.
AChildren under 15 years of age aren’t allowed to visit the gorillas.
Understanding Gorillas
Gorillas are the largest of the great apes and share 97% of their biological make-up with humans. Gorillas used to inhabit a swathe of land that cut right across central Africa, but the last remaining eastern mountain gorillas number just over 700, divided between two 300-plus populations in the forests of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, encompassing Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and the DRC’s Parc National des Virungas. For more on the conservation status of mountain gorillas, please see (Click here).
Daily Life
Gorillas spend 30% of their day feeding, 30% moving and foraging, and the remainder resting. They spend most of their time on the ground, moving around on all fours but standing up to reach for food. Gorillas are vegetarians and their diet consists mainly of bamboo shoots, giant thistles and wild celery, all of which contain water and allow the gorillas to survive without drinking for long periods of time. A silverback can eat his way through more than 30kg of bamboo a day.
A group’s dominant silverback dictates movements for the day, and at night each gorilla makes its own nest. Gorillas usually travel about 1km a day, unless they have met another group, in which case they may move further.
Families
Gorillas generally live in family groups of varying sizes, usually including one to two older silverback males, younger blackback males, females and infants. Most groups contain between 10 and 15 gorillas, but they can exceed 40. The largest habituated group in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has 26 members, and in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park the largest group has 28.
There are strong bonds between individuals and status is usually linked to age. Silverbacks are at the top of the hierarchy, then females with infants or ties to the silverbacks, then blackbacks and other females. Most gorillas leave the group when they reach maturity, which helps prevent inbreeding among such a small population.
Conflict
Gorillas are relatively placid primates and serious confrontations are rare, although violence can flare up if there’s a challenge for supremacy between silverbacks. Conflicts are mostly kept to shows of strength and vocal disputes.
Conflict between groups is also uncommon, as gorillas aren’t territorial; if two groups meet, there’s usually lots of display and bravado on the part of silverbacks, including mock charges. Often the whole group joins in and it’s at this point that young adult females may choose to switch allegiance.
If gorillas do fight, injuries can be very serious as these animals have long canine teeth and silverbacks pack a punch estimated to be eight times stronger than that of a heavyweight boxer. If a dominant male is driven from a group by another silverback, it’s likely the new leader will kill all the infants to establish his mating rights.
Communication
Gorillas communicate in a variety of ways, including facial expressions, gestures and around two dozen vocalisations. Adult males use barks and roars during confrontations or to coordinate the movement of their groups to a different area. Postures and gestures form an important element of intimidation and it’s possible for a clash to be diffused by a display of teeth-baring, stiff-legging and charging.
Friendly communication is an important part of group bonding and includes grunts of pleasure. Upon finding food, gorillas will grunt or bark to alert other members of the group.
Biology
Gorillas are the largest primates in the world and mountain gorillas are the largest of the three gorilla species; adult male mountain gorillas weigh as much as 200kg (440lb). Females are about half this size.
Males reach maturity between eight and 15 years old, their backs turning silver as they enter their teens, while females enter adulthood at the earlier age of eight. Conception is possible for about three days each month, and once a female has conceived for the first time, she spends most of her life pregnant or nursing.
The duration of a gorilla pregnancy is about 8½ months. Newborn infants are highly dependent on adults, and a young infant will rarely leave its mother’s arms during its first six months. In its second year, a young gorilla begins to interact with other members of the group and starts to feed itself. Infant gorillas and silverbacks often form a bond, and it’s not uncommon for a silverback to adopt an infant if its mother dies. This distinguishes gorillas from other primates, where child-rearing duties are left to females. From about three years, young gorillas become quite independent and build their own nests.
Mountain gorillas are distinguished from their more widespread lowland relatives by longer hair, broader chests and wider jaws. The most obvious thing that sets the gorillas in Bwindi apart from those of the Virungas is that they are less shaggy, most likely due to the lower altitude.
Where to Track Gorillas
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Uganda)
Home to around half of the world’s eastern mountain gorilla population, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park remains one of the top spots to track mountain gorillas. The evocatively named park lives up to its name, with stunning scenery comprising dense, steep virgin rainforest. And yes, it means tracking can occasionally be hard work, but with the aid of a good walking stick (or a porter to lend a hand), you’ll get there without too much difficulty. And while visibility often isn’t as good as it is in the open spaces where the Virunga gorillas hang out, in Bwindi you’ll get just as close to them and they’re more likely to be seen swinging from the trees.
Arranging Permits
Even though the number of tracking permits has increased to around 96 per day, it can still be difficult to get them. There are 12 mountain gorilla groups spread across four areas of the park.
Permits, which cost US$600, must be booked at the Uganda Wildlife Authority headquarters in Kampala or through a Ugandan tour operator. It’s theoretically possible to arrange permits online via a bank transfer, but the UWA is notoriously tricky to get in touch with via email.
Discount permits are available for US$350 for the low season months of April, May, October and November; whether this remains an ongoing fixture is yet to be determined.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda)
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park encompasses Uganda’s share of the Virunga volcanoes, which sit squarely on the tri-nation border. This park is popular with independent travellers because reservations aren’t possible more than two weeks in advance, due to the only habituated gorilla group’s tendency to duck over the border into Rwanda or the DRC. Of course, the down side of this is that it means they can’t always be tracked. It often takes longer to find the gorillas here than in Bwindi, but the walking is usually (but not always) much easier.
Arranging Permits
Reservations for the eight places available daily are only taken at the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park Office in Kisoro. The US$600 fee is paid at the park headquarters on the morning of your tracking.
Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda)
Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park ranks up there with Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park as one of the best places in East Africa to see gorillas. Part of its appeal is that this is where Dian Fossey was based and where the film about her work was made. Also, the towering volcanoes form a breathtaking backdrop. Tracking here is usually easier than in Bwindi because the mountains offer a more gradual climb, and the visibility is often better too; remember, however, that the trekking here is extremely strenuous. One other thing to remember is that visitors here, unlike in Bwindi, are assigned gorilla groups on tracking day, not when reservations are made, so those who aren’t in such good shape will get one of the groups requiring the least amount of walking.
Arranging Permits
There are 10 habituated gorilla groups. Eighty tracking permits (US$750 per person) are available each day.
You can book a permit with the RDB Tourist Office in Kigali or through a tour operator.
PARC NATIONAL DES VIRUNGAS (THE DRC)
Established in 1925 by the Belgian colonial government as Albert National Park, Parc National des Virungas (
%+243 99 1715401; www.visitvirunga.org; Boulevard Kanya Mulanga, Goma) is Africa's oldest and largest protected area. To put things in perspective, Virungas is contiguous with five different national parks in Uganda, and protects an incredible range of endangered animals, from forest elephants to chimpanzees and mountain gorillas.
The park lies at the centre of a war-torn region, and has been threatened by poaching, land invasions, charcoal producers and rebel factions. The park was forced to close in 2012, but parts of it re-opened to tourism in 2014. Assuming that the security situation is safe, the DRC receives far fewer visitors than Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park or Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. Given that permits are also easier to come by here (and they are cheaper), this is probably the easiest place for independent travellers to see the gorillas. And the setting is stunning.
The habituated mountain gorillas of the Parc National des Virungas can be seen on a gorilla tracking trip (US$465). The other drawcard is the chance to climb, and sleep on the rim of, the Nyiragongo Volcano (US$255), whose crater contains the world's largest permanent lava lake.
Bookings for all park activities should be made through the impressively organised Virunga Visitors Centre in Goma or through their website. While tourist visas for the Congo are extremely difficult to obtain, the park can help arrange what is known as a Virunga Visa which is valid for the park itself, Goma, Bukavu and the Parc National Kahuzi-Biega, (kahuzibiega.wordpress.com), which is home to habituated groups of Eastern Lowland gorillas (permits US$400). Visas take around a week to issue and cost US$105.
The security situation in this part of the world changes fast and often. Be sure to double check the latest before venturing here.