GORILLAS IN THEIR MIDST

EAST AFRICA

Most people who have seen gorillas have seen western lowland gorillas; nice creatures, but weighing in at just a few hundred pounds, they might as well be drinking from teacups and working on their macramé. They are not the majestic animals made famous by the intrepid zoologist Dian Fossey, the mountain gorillas that weigh nearly 500 pounds. To see them—and you might want to move it, since only 800 or so remain, and they are critically endangered by habitat loss—you have to go to the verdant heights of the Bwindi area of Uganda or the Virunga Mountains, which spread over parts of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. And thanks to Gorillas in the Mist, the Fossey biopic, and the 2014 Oscar-nominated documentary Virunga, gorilla tracking (or trekking) has become increasingly popular. But it is expensive and highly regulated. Permits are limited in number and range from $400 per day in Congo to $750 per day in Rwanda; visitors may spend no more than an hour with the animals. Beyond those precepts, the rules combine common sense and good manners: Speak quietly; stay at least 20 feet from the animals; if one charges, crouch down slowly, avoid eye contact and wait for the animal to pass. In other words, act as if you were taking your tween daughter to a One Direction concert.

For more information, go to www.safariadviceuganda.blogspot.com/2012/10/where-to-do-gorilla-trekking-tour.html

A mountain gorilla family sticks together and stays on the lookout in Congo’s Virunga National Park.