Gorilla Trekking Holidays

Gorillas are unique to the dense equatorial forests of central Africa. Eastern mountain gorillas are found in the mountainous region where Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo meet. Most of our trips operate in this area. 

However we also offer gorilla watching in the lowland forests of Republic of Congo, around one thousand kilometres further to the west, to track western lowland gorillas in the flooded forests of Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

Eastern mountain gorilla

Although for a long time it was thought that there was just a single species of gorilla, DNA evidence indicates that in fact there are two distinct species. The endangered eastern mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), a sub-species of the eastern gorilla, is found in the mountainous area where Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo meet.

They live in stable, cohesive family groups, led by a dominant silverback male, and tend to have larger group sizes than their western relatives, numbering up to 35 individuals. They are herbivorous, with a diet largely of foliage, and as a result have smaller home ranges than western gorillas as foliage is more abundant than fruit. They forage mainly in the morning and late afternoon, and build nests for sleeping by folding over vegetation, usually on the ground. 

Western lowland gorilla

The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), a subspecies of the western gorilla, is found over 1,000 kilometres west of the domain of the mountain gorilla, in the lowland equatorial rainforests of Odzala-Kokoua National Park in Republic of Congo. These herbivores subsist mainly on juicy stemmed plants, as well as leaves, berries, ferns and fibrous bark – usually feeding during the morning and afternoon.

Western gorillas are smaller and lighter-bodied than their eastern relatives who eat mainly foliage, because they must be agile enough to climb trees up to 15 metres in search of food. They never completely strip vegetation from a single area, and rapid regrowth allows them to stay within a reasonably confined home range for extended periods.