Travel by Theme

Rwanda Wildlife

Gorillas, golden monkeys, chimpanzees, and the forests of the Virunga.

Gorilla trekking in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park is not a zoo experience or a safari with guaranteed sightings at a safe distance. You hike into the forest—sometimes for hours, depending on where the gorillas have moved—until you find them, and then you spend an hour in their presence at close range. Mountain gorillas share roughly 98% of our DNA, and being with them in the forest registers as something fundamentally different from watching wildlife through glass. Rwanda's conservation model, which directs a significant share of permit revenue directly to surrounding communities, is one of the main reasons the mountain gorilla population has actually grown rather than collapsed. These posts cover gorilla trekking, golden monkey tracking, and chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe Forest from my 2014 trip.

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