The mountain gorillas in Rwanda are a success story. Their numbers are increasing (of the 720 in the world as of this date, 480 are in Rwanda), poaching has diminished, and the local people are reaping the benefits of tourism. This trip has proven so popular that the government has increased the park fee for your one hour visit with the mountain gorillas.

There are 16 groups in Rwanda- eight are for tourists to view, 8 are off limits to tourists and are used to study their behavior.

Franois Gorilla Imitation

Our guide Francois was a porter for Dian Fossey, and as such has extensive gorilla knowledge. Francois acts so much like a gorilla that he looks like one!

In the video below Francois is showing us the noises he makes to calm the silverback in our presence. In the video he describes the sounds the silverback makes to give you an indication of his mood. You will also get a kick out of his making Dominic make the same sounds. It’s quite humorous!

At the end of the video you will see how close a silverback comes to Dr. P as he is taking a video with his camera. He wasn’t paying attention, and Francois had to tell him to move or else the silverback would bump into him.

Rwanda Gorilla

When it comes to primates it’s all about the eyes, especially for an animal that is so closely related to us. This is a silverback gorilla on the first day of our trek.

I love their hands also because they are so human-like

They have great dexterity in spite of their huge hands

The scenery in Rwanda is lush and beautiful. This is the view from our lodge. The gorillas are at the base of those mountains.

Theo was our guide for the trip. His professionalism was a huge part of making this trip successful, especially when he bartered the purchase of fruit for us!

The Rwandans are warm and friendly towards tourists. Almost everywhere you go in Rwanda people come to greet you, especially the children. This gives you a feel of why the wildlife are being pushed out by the burgeoning human population needing land for food.

Our hotel had a 45 minute “welcome” dance for us by some cute kids. When we first arrived it was pouring rain, and we did not know anything about it. The rain stopped after an hour, the sun came out, and we ran outside when we heard this dance starting.

Gorilla Dancers

This video shows the last 15 seconds of this dance

The kids were always curious about us as we made our trek to see the gorillas

This boy beckoned Dr. P to come over and give him something

We were mobbed by the “gorillas” every time they cornered our vehicle

They carry everything on their heads. This rock weighs over 70 pounds.

Rwanda is a mountaneous country with a dependence on agriculture. The weather is conducive to several crops. Unfortunately, the people farm the land adjacent to the gorillas and the National Park, so conflict is increasing as the population expands.

This is the view from the National Park at the beginning of the trek

These are the mountains that contain the gorilla troops

All groups meet at the Volcanoes National Park headquarters for instructions and guide assignments. The maximum number of people in each individual group is 8.

The entrance to the National Park where all groups meet before their trek

The mountain gorillas were first identified here in 1902

Our head guide Francois and his assistant are showing us which group we will be visiting. They know each individual gorilla and its social standing in the group. Click on the picture to hear a 5 minute detailed introduction to the gorillas by Francois’ assistant. He has an accent so you have to concentrate on what he is saying.

Gorilla briefing

Some groups have to walk for the better part of the day to find the gorillas. We had an easy 2 hour trek to meet the park rangers that watch over them. From then on it was Francois, us, and the gorillas.

We start the trek through agricultural land at the edge of the mountain.

Francois is in the back, a porter carrying our backpacks is in front of him, and at the very front is a ranger with an AK-47. His primary role is to scare away the occasional cape buffalo that roam the area.

The beginning of the trek is easy and beautiful

Can you guess what we are hiking through?

They are potato fields

Taking a break during the trek

We met up with  the park rangers watching over the gorillas in the thick vegetation at the base of the mountain. The two men on the right are our porters, the two in the center are the park rangers that keep continual watch on the gorillas, and Francois is on the left.

Final Gorilla Briefing

Francois giving us final instructions before we meet our distant cousins. Click
on the photo above to hear several minutes of it. In the beginning he talks about a wall to help keep the cape buffalo and elephant away from the potato crops.

We left everything with the park rangers except cameras,  and followed Francois as he macheted through
the thick jungle

The gorillas seem to appear out of nowhere because they are well hidden and you are
concentrating on your footing in the jungle. This was our first encounter.

This little guy came closer and proceeded to feed right in front of us. You are supposed to stay 7 meters (21 feet) away to prevent the spread of disease, but it is hard to do this when they come up to you. 

He spent several minutes getting his lunch prepared

When it was just right he munched (loudly) away

Guess who was keeping a wary eye on us as we watched this youngster?

It is not hard to see why he is called a silverback

He ate vegetation right in front of us, pretending not to notice our presence. Francois made many calming gorilla sounds when the silverback came this close. 

It was fascinating to watch how he held the food with his hand and ate it

This is the silverback that walked right past me in the video at the beginning of this page

Apparently he was used to having his picture taken 

He was quite calm in our presence and gave a few different poses.

After a short while he decided just to stare at us

Silverback Walk Past

When we were sure this silverback accepted our presence we took this photo with his troop

This is a different troop on our 2nd day with them

This silverback in this group weighs 440 pounds!

His huge head probably weighed more than many people

This profile gives a better idea of how large his head was

From  an email waiting back at the lodge after the first day we found out that a female gorilla in our area had twins on February 3rd

On our second day we were looking at the mother of these twins as she was hiding from us

We slowly got closer to her to try and get a glimpse of her babies. She stayed behind the leaves most of the time.

She figured if she kept still we would not see her

She stayed hidden for several minutes

As she felt more comfortable with our presence she showed off her twins

They were less than a week old according to the guides

Many females in the troop had babies

Their mothers let us get near to get some good pictures

Most of the babies rode on their mothers like this

They were as curious about us as we were about them

This one stared at us for quite a while

Like many children he put on a show in front of us

He made sure we were watching him……

…. until he decided to ignore us

The youngsters spent lots of time frolicking

I loved looking at their hands and feet



We are supposed to stay 21 feet away. That is impossible when they are this cute and they come up near you. Some of them have died picking up a virus from visitors, so the rule needs more enforcement 

Sometimes they played with the silverback (this is the 440 pounder from above). Can you see him sitting on the youngster?

The youngsters seem to have no fear of people and come up so close that Francois has to remind you to back away. Notice how this gorilla’s left eye deviates? This is called exotropia, and is a form of strabismus. 

The gorilla-meisters!

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