Mountain gorilla trekking Myths : If you are a primate enthusiast there is no doubt you will not want to see the mountain gorillas in their habitat, at some point in your life. Mountain gorillas are unique huge apes that share about 95% of their DNA with humans. These apes are found natural in Uganda, in Rwanda and in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Uganda which has the largest population of these apes, the gorillas make their home in Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga National park. These parks are both found in the south western part of the country.
In Rwanda the mountain gorillas live in Volcanoes National Park well as in the DRC, the apes live in Virunga National Park.
All these habitats are mountainous forested areas hence the primates called mountain gorillas. People who desire to have a glimpse of these primates usually go on mountain gorilla trekking experiences, where they enter the forested mountain and climb up to the location where they find the gorillas.
When you find the gorillas you spend an hour in their presence before, you leave to depart the forest. You then leave the forest go to your accommodation location or continue on another safari adventure.
Well in a nutshell that’s mountain gorilla trekking and when you go for a mountain gorilla trekking experience that’s pretty much what you can expect.
However, different people think the experience and the gorillas are different thing all together, other than described. That’s why in this article we want to address some of the myths on gorillas and mountain gorilla trekking.
Some of the myths we are debunking include but are not limited to:-
- Mountain Gorillas are made up creatures more like dinosaurs
Mountain Gorillas are not made up at all, they are real creatures and when you visit their habitats you will see that they are really animals and creatures as said they are. As for dinosaurs we cannot authoritatively comment about them; because we have not seen them physically but we have seen them in a number of movies,
- Mountain gorillas are another species of chimpanzees
Absolutely not, chimpanzees and mountain gorillas are two different species and though they all live in forested areas; they are not same. The gorillas first of all are bigger, have dark faces, and big bodies among other differences. And they only live in high altitudesof mountainous forests. On the other hand chimpanzees have a brownish face, live in bigger groups than gorillas, and live in low areas of forests compared to gorillas. So the chimpanzees and gorillas are two different animal species.
- Mountain gorillas are a type of monkeys
Numerous people think that mountain gorillas belong to the monkey family. But this is not the case monkeys are also primates but they not gorillas they are one of the five categories of primates. The most notable difference between monkeys and apes is that monkeys have tails while gorillas do not.
- Mountain gorillas are rough
Though they are huge and massive; when you get into their presence these are some of the things you will notice about the mountain gorillas, but the mountain gorillas are some of the gentlest animals in the wild. They are sociable, like peace and silent environment. They can only charge at you and choose to fight you when you disturb their peace.
- Mountain gorillas eat young children
Absolutely not! Gorillas cannot eat children, because they are nurturing beings but also because they are herbivorous animals. However the gorillas can play around with a baby, swinging the baby or toddlers back and forth which may be fatal. And its one of the reasons persons below the age of 15 years are not allowed to trek gorillas.
