Gorilla Tracking Safaris

Meet the Mountain Gorillas

A powerful presence wrapped in quiet intelligence

Mountain gorillas are the celebrities of the primate world, though they wear their fame with a distinctly low-key charm.

These remarkable animals live in close-knit family groups led by a dominant silverback, a figure equal parts guardian, referee, and occasional dictator. His job? Keep the peace, protect the troop, and make sure everyone knows who’s boss… usually with nothing more than a look – that look.

Gorillas are herbivores, spending their days grazing on leaves, stems, and fruit. It sounds simple, but their daily routine is a finely tuned rhythm of feeding, resting, grooming, and social bonding. This is a forest-based lifestyle with very strong family values.

How much do they eat?

Gorillas are the “OG” vegetarians, albeit with the occasional insect hor d’oeuvres. Thus, being dubbed “The gardeners of the forest”, they keep the forest well-manicured and maintained, consuming from 18 kg (in adult females) up to 30 kg (44 – 66 lb) per day (in adult males).

Their typical daily diet comprises fruit, leaves, roots, pith, and stems. Their insect diet may include small amounts of termites, caterpillars and snails.

This diet gives them the luxury of hydrating at the same time. Because their diet is so succulent, they hardly ever need to drink water.

What do they weigh?

These formidable creatures enter the ring at around 136-220 kg (300 – 485 lb) and stand up to 1.8m (6ft)tall in males, while females, not in the lightweight category themselves, can weigh between 50 – 110 kg (110 – 240 lb)with an average height of 1.5m (4.9ft) tall.

They are incredibly strong, specifically the male silverbacks who have the capability of strength being estimated to around an incredible 10 x their bodyweight.

All is not brut force though when the babies are born at a mere 2kg (4.5 lb)

What strikes most travellers isn’t their size, although they are undeniably impressive, but their gentleness, which contradicts their size. Their eyes reflect curiosity rather than fear, and awareness rather than aggression.

And then it hits you, the resemblance, the shared expressions and the  subtle gestures. You don’t just observe gorillas, you truly feel connected to them.

The Gorilla Tracking Experience

Equal parts hike, search,  and heart-racing anticipation

Your day begins early, with a briefing from expert trackers who know these forests like old friends. Then, armed with a walking stick and a sense of adventure, you head into the jungle. Each habituated family can have eight permits allocated to it per day. The two partially habituated families have four permits daily, but you get up to four hours of contact time.

The tracking itself can take anywhere from one hour to five. It depends on where the gorillas decided to spend their morning and which difficulty of hike you have requested to join.  They don’t work to a schedule, and honestly, that’s part of the fun, the anticipation in itself. Rangers monitor them during daylight, and long before you have finished your briefing, they have returned to where they left the gorillas the night before, and have starting tracking them again.

As you move deeper into the forest, the signs begin to appear; broken branches, fresh footprints and half-eaten vegetation. (Let’s face it – they’re not known for their table manners). You’re getting close, then comes the moment, there they are, right in front of you.

For one hour, you share space with a gorilla family. You watch them feed, play, groom, nap, and occasionally glance your way as if mildly curious and at the same time un-interested about these peculiar, camera-wielding visitors. Sometimes they are in a clearing and stay there for the entire time you are with them, sometimes they browse and move, browse and move continuously. Regulations require you to not move closer than seven metres from them, but if they come towards you, and they do, then you just stay still and savour the intensity.

Permits cost $800 per day for a one-hour encounter with a habituated family, and $1500 for a four-hour partially habituated family encounter. Depending on the stage of habituation, the encounters can be more fleeting, or similar to those with the habituated families. Often clients book two days of tracking to get a range of experiences, and the second day often provides a more relaxed experience from the client perspective.

Beyond Gorillas: Build Your Safari Story

Because one incredible experience deserves another

Gorilla tracking pairs beautifully with other East African highlights. From chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest to classic game drives across Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls national parks, your itinerary can be as diverse as it is unforgettable.

In QENP, we also organise little-known 4×4 based tracking of collared  lions and leopards with research teams, and a superb afternoon wildlife viewing in the Kazinga channel on Lake Edward. There is an excellent birding and monkey walk near the Bigodi Swamps, and insightful community encounters to learn about local farming and coffee production. You can also seek out the equally idiosyncratic and iconic shoebill stork in the Mabamba wetlands near Entebbe.

Lake Victoria offers tranquil contrasts on islands sandy beaches, and Jinja is home to the source of the Nile and is considered the adventure capital of East Africa, with white water rafting, kayaking, and horse riding on offer, as well as the strangely soothing effect of sleeping next to a fast rapid.

At Indigo Safaris, your trip can be tailored, no templates, no shortcuts, just carefully crafted adventures designed around you.