Wildlife on Gorilla Treks

[AdamfromCanada]

Just out of curiousity (since I just booked my own gorilla trek this weekend for the end of April), other than the gorillas, what other wildlife, if any, did you encounter on the trek through the jungle?

[tletter]

other than the gorillas, what other wildlife, if any, did you encounter on the trek through the jungle?

Not much (Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda) but we saw where a buffalo had bedded down. For us, it was only an hour’s hiking up the trail to where the trackers had located the gorilla group (your mileage may vary).

[Zuleika]

I trekked Bwindi - and nope, no other wildlife to be seen. May have been because it was peeing down though! Although other treks the (sunny) day before didnt report any other sightings either though.

[nikimarcotte]

we were told there were small bush elephants, but you rarely see them. we saw sign of them but not actually any actual animals. i did a 4.5hr trek in because we had to go PAST the tracker camp to get to our group...then another 4hrs out, we were barely out before dark, but all the other groups got lucky and the gorillas moved closer each day. there were not even any bugs until you got to right were the gorillas were hanging out...there was also lots of stinging nettle by the gorillas.

[TravelFun]

Hi Guys

After having recently fallen in love with Gorillas all over again I had started to look into the Gorilla trekking tours in Rwanda, Uganda and Congo.

Then i read a bit about Dian Fossey who seemed to be against tourists as Gorillas can catch flu etc.

But then....on her site it advertises and mentions winners of treks...that the foundation have sent people on

It seems indisputable that tourism has saved the gorillas. Rwanda went through one of the worst civil wars and genocides in recent history in 1994 and the gorillas were more or less protected. There are really nasty wars going on in the same region of Congo and Uganda also and the gorillas persist. My impression is that the gorillas are recognized as an irreplaceable economic resource because of the tourism.

I would recommend the book "In the Kingdom of Gorillas" by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder. They are ecologists who worked with Dian Fossey and fought with her over the need to set up ecotourism in order to conserve the gorillas and their ecosystem. The book records the history of how and why gorilla tourism was set up and how it is working.