So what is Gorilla Trekking? well this is an activity that involves walking through the natural habitats of the gorillas as you search for them until you eventually find them and spend an hour in their midst observing them maintaining the officially required distance between you and the gorillas. The activity is led by a professional ranger guides who will lead through the forest. Because they live in the thick rain forest, the forest undergrowth is normally very dense that it may re-quire your guide to clear the trails which are most cases muddy and slippery with a machete.
Every person interested in taking part in this activity is required to have a
gorilla tour permit
. Proceeds from the permits are used to support the local communities living close to the gorillas habits, discourage poaching and conserving the species that is close to extinction.
The
mountain gorillas
are a larger and more hairy relative to the lowland gorillas. Because of poaching and encroachment on their natural habitat through deforestation and construction of infrastructure, these creatures lost all their habitats to just three remaining habitats across the planet and these are in Uganda (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park), Rwanda (Volcanoes National Park) and D.R Congo (Virunga National Park). Unfortunately, there are less than nine hundred (900) Mountain gorillas believed to be remaining in the world today.
Sadly the Mountain Gorilla is a major target for poachers a thing that has greatly contributed to their reduction in numbers close to extinction. Poachers sell the gorilla hands as trinkets as well as charms, their heads are sold as curiosities and then their meat is consumed as a meal. So when you speak about conserving a gorilla or any other species to a person who is basically trying to make ends meet, that is something very impracticable. However, Gorilla Trekking in Uganda, Rwanda and D.R Congo try to mitigate this problem.