Gorillas and Chimpanzee Tracking in Rwanda Safaris
Gorillas and Chimpanzee Tracking in Rwanda Safaris offer an unforgettable wildlife experience for travellers looking to explore Rwanda’s incredible primates in their natural habitats.
Rwanda is renowned for its gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, but the country is also home to chimpanzees as well a host of monkeys – colobus, golden, L’Hoest’s, owl faced, Dent’s, blue and Vervet – alongside olive baboons as well as the nocturnal potto and bush babies. Making it a home for many primate species.
Located on the western border of the country, the Volcanoes National Park is the Rwandan section of the Virunga Massif Mountain Range. This park homes around 150 of the world’s 800 remaining mountain gorillas left in the world today. Rwanda gorilla trekking is the most historical and established.
The mountain gorilla tracking in Rwanda
With limited space to forage and thrive, the gorillas have found solitude in protected areas of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rangers work tirelessly as sentinels, always on watch and looking for anyone with intent to harm or capture a gorilla. The high level of protection that surrounds these African primates means that relatively few people get to see these animals in the wild. Those who do, though, understand that the experience is much more than a casual safari activity—it is, indeed, a rare privilege.
Senses heighten as your guide indicates that your group is close to a family of magnificent, isolated mountain gorillas. The slightest rustle of leaves focuses your attention on the dense foliage just ahead. Following your guide’s careful instructions, you quietly step forward and kneel down. Deep green vegetation frames a surreal and utterly captivating scene: a massive silverback male sits quietly while keeping watch over his gorilla family. He appears to be somewhat disengaged, but your intuition tells you that he is quietly vigilant. Close to the dominant giant are two females and several juveniles engaged in grooming and nibbling on succulent bamboo shoots. A just inch above them is a tiny infant, struggling to keep hold of a branch.
The largest living primate, gorillas are spread across much of the equatorial African rainforest. Broadly speaking, the species is split into lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas. The unique opportunity to see gorillas in their natural habitat is unforgettable, some even say life changing. Encounters with gorillas as they go about their daily lives are carefully managed, with expert trackers and guides leading small groups of tourists up bamboo-covered slopes to spend a precious and awe-inspiring hour just a few feet away from the gentle creatures.
The volcanic range which spans Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to the endangered mountain gorilla. Tracking gorillas in Rwanda is safe and relatively accessible. At the latest count, there are approximately 1,000 mountain gorillas in the wild, with 604 in the Virunga Massif. The population is slowly increasing, thanks to concerted efforts between our governments, communities and NGOs.
There are twelve gorilla families living in the Volcanoes National Park, which are fully habituated, with a few others habituated solely for scientific research. The groups, or troops, consist of at least one silverback along with several females and youngsters.
The troops are somewhat fluid in composition, but tend to stick to a preferred area. They are constantly monitored and protected by park rangers, with each group coming into contact with tourists for a strict maximum of one hour per day. Six tracking permits are issued per troop per day, meaning the encounter is as intimate and as unobtrusive as possible. With only 96 permits available each day in Rwanda, it is highly recommended to book in advance, either online or via a reputable tour operator.
Visitors gather at the Volcanoes National Park headquarters in Kinigi at 7am, and are allocated a family group on the day according to fitness levels, as well as being briefed on protocols and rules for visiting the gorillas.
The families are known as Susa, Igisha, Karisimbi, Sabyinyo, Amahoro, Agashya, Kwitonda, Umubano, Hirwa, Bwenge, Ugyenda and Muhoza. Hikes up to their various locations can last anything from 30 minutes to four or more hours, reaching an altitude of between 2,500m and 4,000m. Porters are available to carry backpacks and cameras, as well as to offer a helping hand along the route.10% of the revenue from the permits is channeled towards local communities, to build schools and health centres, as well as roads. There is a compensation fund for local farmers should any gorillas damage their crops, which helps to ensure peaceful co-existence.
Gorilla tracking also provides employment for many locals, from rangers and trackers to porters, drivers and staff at tourist lodges. For those interested in tracing the footsteps of Dian Fossey, her tomb is a 30-minute drive from the park headquarters and then two or three hours hike through the forest, to above 3,000m altitude.
The annual Kwita Izina gorilla-naming ceremony is a special time to visit the Volcanoes National Park, with guided tours leading up the main event providing an opportunity to meet park staff and conservationists, attend cultural evenings and a celebration in Musanze. At the naming ceremony itself, there’s music, dancing, and discussion about Rwanda’s great strides in gorilla conservation, and the great challenges that remain.
Chimp trekking in Rwanda
Chimp trekking in Rwanda is in Nyungwe National Park in the south of Rwanda. The two areas where chimps can be trekked in Nyungwe are Cyamudongo and Uwinka. Your guide will guide you on the location you are expected to trek from and you will be given a briefing before you can start the trek. Chimpanzee trekking begins early morning with visitors expected to arrive at the briefing point in Uwinka to start trekking at 5:00 am. You are allowed to stay 1 hour with the chimps after locating them with the help of your ranger guide.
Nyungwe forest is home to 13 primate species and over 500 chimpanzees reside in the forest. The other primates include, L’Hoest’s monkey, Angola colobus – delightfully acrobatic monkeys which move in large troops of over 400 individuals, Rwenzori colobus, silver monkey, golden monkey, owl-faced monkey, red-tailed monkey, Den’tmona monkey, Vervet monkey, olive baboon, grey-cheeked mangabey and three species of bush baby.
Chimpanzees are found in the Nyungwe National Park as well as in smaller number in the Gishwati Forest. Sociable creatures, chimpanzees live in extended communities and move around every day, foraging for food or occasionally hunting smaller mammals. They build fresh nests in the trees each night. It is common to hear the chimpanzees before seeing them, with their vocalization’s reverberating through the forest as they call to each other in a sort of bonding ritual.
Tracking starts early, at 5.30am, and can last anything from an hour to several hours depending on where the chimps are – visitors spend a maximum of one hour with them once they are found. The terrain can be steep, slippery and muddy, passing through thick vegetation.
With only 900 or so mountain gorillas left wild in the world today, it is becoming higher on a lot of travellers bucket lists. There are three countries that home these majestic animals: Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The gorillas in Rwanda and the DRC straddle the Virunga Massif mountain range whilst in Uganda, gorillas reside in Mgahinga National Park and more famously, Bwindi National Park.
Although each gorilla is a unique experience, there are arguably, pros and cons to trekking in each destination. In this section, I will outline the logistics, price and accommodation in all three countries.
Accommodation
There are several lodges in the Volcanoes National Park that are very comfortable and have established reputations, such as Virunga Lodge, Gorilla Mountain Lodge and Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge. There are also incredibly high-end lodges which have simply breathtaking accommodation, service, food and overall experience. These include Bisate Lodge
