We left Kigali before dawn, following the road north as it edged round the mountains, climbing to viewpoints from where I could glimpse blue-grey hills stacked up to the horizon in rows. The roads were crowded with people taking their goods to market. One woman carried a treadle sewing machine on her head, bicycles transported two or three passengers plus their loads, and children were almost hidden under baskets of fruit.

At Ruhengeri we collected our permit and continued to the park headquarters to meet our guide, John (English-speaking) and his Francophone colleague.

John asked whether we were suffering from colds or other infectious diseases which could be passed on to the gorillas. If so, we would have to stay behind. In any case, he explained, we must keep a distance of seven metres from the animals. "Sometimes difficult - the gorillas don't know these rules and they like tourists!"

The term "gorilla tracking" is evocative but inaccurate: these days the hard work is done by a team of trackers with walkie-talkie radios. By the time the tourists have signed in at the National Park headquarters and been briefed on gorilla etiquette, the guides know exactly where the animals are. We were exceptionally lucky - Group Thirteen was only fifteen minutes inside the park boundary.

We set off past fields of pyrethrum and other crops, practising our Kinyrwanda greetings on the farmers and their children, beneficiaries of local community projects financed by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. There is no mistaking the park boundary - cultivation gives way abruptly to bamboo thickets and the broad track narrows to a trail. But the walking was easy; the sun skipped among the clouds, dappling the forest with numerous greens, and the earth gave out that unmistakable rainforest smell of damp lushness.

We barely had time to appreciate our surroundings before John stopped and whispered that we were near the gorillas. He reminded us to keep our voices low, to avoid sudden movements and to leave our gear with the trackers. Then we pushed through a curtain of vegetation and found ourselves a few metres from an enormous silverback.

Ukwamumane snapped off the obstructing bamboo shoots so he could get a better view of us. For a few seconds we stared at each other, the imperious gorilla chief and his puny human visitors. My response was unexpected (to me) but apparently common - tears flooded into my eyes and down my cheeks. However much you have been anticipating your first sight of a wild gorilla, nothing prepares you for the surge of emotion when you look into its eyes.

Satisfied that his audience was properly assembled, Ukwamumane rolled onto his back and glanced into the bushes. A small black figure burst out of the shrubbery and flung himself onto his father's huge sofa-like chest. Dad reached forward and pulled Mararo towards him, an arm as thick as a tree trunk gently holding the infant while he nuzzled his neck and ears.

The playful four-year-old broke away to indulge in his favourite game - climbing on and somersaulting off his father's belly. Occasionally Ukwamumane grabbed him for another kiss and cuddle. Then a younger sibling arrived and wanted to play too. There was a tangle of limbs, as father couldn't resist enfolding both infants in his arms. When he sat up they found a new, even better game. Dad's broad grey back made an excellent slide if you clambered up to the level area between his shoulders. One after the other they climbed up, slid down, climbed up again...

We were so engrossed that we almost missed the smallest baby of all, Gwira, who was just a month old. Her mother sat suckling her at the edge of the clearing, ready to retreat if necessary. Every now and then we caught sight of that wizened, surprised little face which is characteristic of all young apes, or a tiny foot as mum turned her over to groom her back.

Then I ran out of film - fortunately. I put down my camera and for the remainder of our visit I just observed as the gorillas flaunted their parenting skills, using my binoculars to study detail: the huge hands which looked as though they were wearing furry black fingerless gloves; the chipped fingernails, the callused knuckles. I looked at the ears, so familiarly shaped, and at eyes that gazed back with such intelligence that I looked away uneasily, not wishing to be rude. Some features are just like ours, but others - such as mouths and shoulders - are utterly different. Thank goodness: I needed this difference to avoid feeling like a voyeur.

The time that humans spend with gorillas is limited so the animals never become stressed. After an hour, we left the scene quietly to let the family continue their day's activity: a late-morning nap, perhaps more games before lunch, with all the time in the world for socialising, for play - and for love. I think it is the recognition of this perfect world which seems beyond our human reach, despite our aspirations, which makes a visit to the gorillas such an emotional experience.

Hilary Bradt

Gorilla Tourism - some costs and benefits

Conservationists in Rwanda mobilized in 1979 when plans were announced to clear a large area of the Volcanoes National Park for cattle grazing, since conversion of the forest habitat was considered the greatest threat to the mountain gorillas' survival. A means of making the gorillas "pay for themselves" and protecting the park was needed, so a tourism programme was planned and developed by researchers with experience gained from the Karisoke Research Centre. Gorilla tourism has since become a great success in terms of increased protection of the parks, close surveillance of additional gorilla groups and much needed revenue.

Even before tourism began, impacts on the gorillas' behaviour were feared. Stress provoked during the habituation process or through regular contact with unfamiliar humans could potentially result in immunosuppression or reduced reproductive success.

Fortunately, extrapolation from research on demographics carried out at the Karisoke Research Centre indicates that tourism has not been deleterious to the gorillas' overall health, behaviour and ecology. Any negative impacts seem to have been outweighed by the improved monitoring and protection.

Studies of captive gorillas also show they have a definite susceptibility to human diseases, but lack the same resistance as us. Certain human pathogens can affect gorillas - respiratory diseases (such as measles, herpes and pneumonia) and enteric ones (such as polio or salmonella).

An infectious illness could devastate the small gorilla population in the Virungas and tourism has increased the potential threat of germ transmission. While most international tourists have been inoculated against certain diseases, they may carry new viruses, such as strains of influenza.

Illnesses to which the gorillas have never previously been exposed are potentially the most dangerous. While this was recognised as a risk at the start of the tourism programme, the loss of habitat was considered a far greater threat to the gorillas at the time and the tourism programme was implemented with strict rules to minimise the risk.

Despite the dangers inherent in tourism, it provides a mechanism for ensuring that the parks and the gorillas are valued for many reasons, and has probably saved the gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes from further habitat loss or degradation.

The high cost of a gorilla-viewing permit is often questioned. It is currently $250 - and most visitors will tell you it was worth every cent.

There is an important reason for keeping the price high - it is a necessary means to try to control the high pressures put upon the gorillas and the park authorities. The gorillas are often at their limit in terms of the number of people who can visit them each day and at certain times of year it is hard to get a booking. An important means of coping with demand and to assure parks and governments of adequate revenue is to increase the cost of a visit. At $250, gorilla viewing is affordable to many overseas visitors, who are not discouraged by the price. It should be remembered that the tourism programme was begun first and foremost as a means of conserving the gorillas.

Liz Williamson

Status of Rwanda's Mountain Gorillas

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) live only in the Virunga Volcanoes, which straddle the borders of Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Almost two thirds of this area is in DRC, but more than one third of the gorilla population lives in Rwanda. At the end of the year 2000, by combining our knowledge with that collected by the protected area authorities and collated by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), we ascertained that during the last eleven years there has been a 10% increase to 359 mountain gorillas in the 400km2 Virunga massif as a whole. Most of that increase has occurred in the study area of the Karisoke Research Centre, operated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (www.gorillafund.org). This small increase is encouraging, given that the region has suffered ten years of instability, and is testimony to the efforts of the trackers, guards and guides who have risked their lives in order to protect the gorillas.

Until the recent insurgencies, the most serious threats to mountain gorillas were the possibilities of disease transmission from humans and from habitat encroachment. For decades, the Virunga Volcanoes region has been subject to high pressure because of the rate of human population growth, to a density of up to 400 people/km2 cultivating the fertile volcanic soil. This has forced the gorillas to limit their range to a small portion of these mountains, near the peaks of the volcanoes.

We are often asked whether mountain gorillas are still hunted and if poaching remains a problem in the Volcanoes National Park. Although not deliberately targeted, gorillas can fall victim to traps set for antelope. If caught, the gorillas' strength enables them to break free, but during the struggle a wire may cut into a hand or foot; if these cuts become infected, the animal may die. To protect the gorillas and other fauna in the park, DFGFI and the Rwandan National Parks Office (ORTPN) operate daily anti-poaching patrols to destroy snares. Karisoke staff collect and burn about 1000 antelope snares each year.

The Volcanoes National Park was closed for most of 1997 and 1998. Once able to visit again, I was amazed to find the gorilla population intact. How did they escape becoming trapped and maimed during a time when monitoring and anti-poaching activities were impossible, rendering them particularly vulnerable? It seems that several silverbacks (adult male gorillas) have acquired the ability to recognise and destroy snares, using knowledge gained through experience. In the past, the gorillas' home ranges were riddled with snares, thus they were likely to have come into contact with them regularly and have learned the hard way how dangerous they can be.

We have seen three silverbacks manifest behaviour around snares which indicates that they recognise the threat posed, their reactions varying from avoidance to making threatening vocalisations towards other gorillas to keep away (pig-grunting), even to the point of biting individuals who approach a snare. Usually those threatened were "immatures" - infants and juveniles who could have had little or no experience of snares.

On one occasion the individual bitten was our research assistant, who was trying to remove a snare. As she moved away with the wire in her hand, the silverback appeared, charged and bit into her thigh. It could easily be assumed that Shinda associated the human with the snare and reacted to the danger by attacking her. But take into account the time that these gorillas have spent in the company of researchers - almost every day of their lives - and that the gorillas distinguish easily between human individuals. We believe that the gorilla was actually dissuading the researcher from coming into contact with the dangerous object and that his punishing bite may have been intended as a lesson.

The development of "snare awareness" may explain why apparently no gorillas were trapped while unprotected. That they seem to have avoided these snares is an affirmation of their intelligence and ability to learn.

Liz Williamson

Gorilla Watching Etiquette

Spending time with these extraordinary creatures requires that you respect some basic rules designed to minimise the risk your visit poses to the gorillas, and for your safety:

Gorillas are very susceptible to human illnesses. If you are feeling unwell or carrying a contagious disease, volunteer to stay behind. An alternate visit will be arranged for you or your money will be refunded. If you are found to be unwell during the trek, your guide has the right to refuse permission for you to visit the gorillas and your money will not be refunded.

Always wash your hands before heading out to the gorillas.

Stay in a tight group when you are near them. Keep your voices down at all times (but it's alright to ask the guide whispered questions). After the visit remain quiet until you are 200m away from the gorillas.

Do not eat or drink near them. Crumbs or drips increase the risk of disease transmission.

Do not leave any rubbish: foreign materials can harbour diseases and contaminants. Whatever you bring into the forest should be carried back out with you.

If you need to cough or sneeze near the gorillas, turn your head away and cover your face in order to minimise the spread of germs. Never spit in the forest.

Keep a minimum of seven metres from the gorillas and nevertry to touch them. This is to protect them from human diseases and for your safety.

They are wild animals and can sometimes charge. If this happens, crouch down slowly, do not look the gorillas directly in the eyes and wait for them to pass. Don't try to take pictures and don't run away. Running away will increase the danger.

Flash photography is forbidden. When taking pictures move slowly and carefully. Point-and-shoot cameras are inadvisable as picture quality will be poor in these conditions and the flash may go off inadvertently.

The maximum time you can spend with the gorillas is one hour. However, if they become agitated or nervous, the guide will finish the visit early. Only eight people per day may visit each group of gorillas (or six if the gorilla group is small). The minimum age for participants is 15.

It is worth knowing the following:
In Rwanda, the $250 fee for gorilla-watching is payable in cash at the Rwandan National Parks Office (ORPTN) in Kigali.

A gorilla visit can entail anything from a thirty-minute to a six-hour trek (sometimes steep and muddy) through a forest of overhanging vines, moss-covered Hagenia trees and giant Lobelias.

Groups are led by experienced trackers who speak both French and English. A contingent of RPA soldiers will provide security during the trek. Other wildlife may be spotted en route, including Golden monkeys, Forest buffalo, duiker and assorted birdlife.

The altitude may cause difficulties for some visitors, so pace yourself, drink plenty of water, make sure you eat well the day before your trip and have a substantial breakfast. Guides have been known to carry exhausted or even hurt (twisted ankle or knee problems) visitors back to the park entrance.

Any visit is unpredictable, so a lot of patience is required. The gorillas don't necessarily stay in one place - you may find yourself hiking further than expected if the group you're visiting is active. But it's worth the effort for the privilege of watching them in their daily routine: feeding, playing and resting. This is what kept Dian Fossey living in the forest for almost 18 years.

If you find yourself hiking further and longer than expected, ask the guides to start leaving the park by at least 3:00pm to ensure that you are out by dark.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Eighteen: Winter 2001/02. Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)