Are gorillas dangerous to human beings

Are gorillas dangerous to human beings : Gorillas are ground dwelling ape species that are further divided into four sub species and these are the mountain gorillas, the eastern lowland gorillas, the cross-river gorillas and the western lowland gorillas. These gorillas are all familiar in a sense and are only differentiated from where they stay. These gorillas share up to 99% of their DNA with the human race making them very close relatives to the human like but in a wild form. The gorillas are very close to the chimpanzees and the bonobos, another primate species.

The gorillas are very strong and large animals and are known to be the largest primates on the earth as an adult can weigh up 270 kilograms and have a height of up to 1.8 meters which is approximately 5.9 feet. They have very broad chests with arms reaching out up to 2.6 meters all depending on their age and sex. They are very social animals and tend to live in groups known as gorilla families just like in the humans so a question of if these gorillas can be dangerous to human beings may be answered by the above few factors.

The gorillas are big animals but are most times at peace and tend to opt for peace before they charge out to attack a human being. Guests booked for a mountain gorilla trek will definitely ask this question on the briefing before the activity. Visits to these gorillas in the wild are common especially the mountain gorillas that are only habituated but can only be visited in the wild.

The mountain gorillas are used to these human visits so they will tend to have more tolerance for the visit. A mountain gorilla will become dangerous to be around after a number of factors that have pushed it to that point. The gorilla once they are not amused by the current occurrence will start by sending off warning signs to warn you the intruder. The gorilla may opt to bark high pitched sounds while facing the disturbance or even stand upright on two feet like in humans. They may also start to aggressively pluck vegetation out of the ground to throw it at the destruction or just slap it.

The gorilla may also start to pound its chest with its palms folded in a bid to show how strong he is and also to demand respect or scare away the intruder. If they do not pound their chest, they may opt to slap the ground. All these signs will be enough to let the intruder decide if they will keep provoking the gorilla or retract.

It is usually after all these efforts have fallen to a deaf ear that the mountain gorilla may attack. On your mountain gorilla trekking experience in any of the gorilla homes, you are accompanied by skilled and knowledgeable ranger guides who will be sure to prepare you for the accepted code of conduct while in the forest and also equip you with emergency responses incase of such occurrences.

Are the gorillas a danger to people

The gorillas have a scary face and the people living near the gorilla homes used to kill them or hunt them down in fear of their lives however this mentality changed after the one primatologist Dian Fossey showed them how polite these animals can be.

Dian Fossey advocated for the protection of the mountain gorillas and stayed very close to them as she habituated the closest family to her camp. She visited this gorilla family often and showed people that the gorillas when handled with care are near to harmless. The gorillas you get to visit on your gorilla trekking experience are in the wild but are habituated animals.

The gorillas fight among themselves more than they attack the humans and the cases of the gorillas attacking humans are near to none once the humans respond to the warning given off before the attack.

What can make a gorilla attack a person.

On your Rwanda safari or Uganda safari or Congo safari, if you are booked to do mountain gorilla trekking or lowland gorilla trekking, you will have to attend a mandatory morning pre-trekking briefing and some of these hints will be shared with you. Once you follow each of these, then there will be no need for the mountain gorillas to attack you.

Noise; Guests are expected to maintain silence as these animals are likely to be agitated by foreign noise in the forest. They are used to wild noises so human noises such as talking, laughing or even gadgets sound like ringtones are sure to send off a danger sign to the gorillas that will charge in an attempt to protect themselves.

Flash photography; It will be a once in a lifetime experience so you will definitely be anticipating to take photos but ensure that you have no flashes on and also don’t flash bright lights towards the gorillas as this will definitely agitate them thinking you are a threat and attack.

These are habituated animals but this doesn’t not rule out the fact that they are wild and are still living in the wild so anything foreign can agitate them for example getting so close to them breaking the 7-meter distance rule, touching them or trying to feed them or even over staying in their natural habitat.

These gorillas, just like humans, may have a bad day and this will not be the best time to visit them and these are usually after fights in their group and a visit may not be as welcome as on the other times. Once you follow your ranger guide’s guidelines, you are sure of having a peaceful visit to the gorillas and exit the forest without any harm.

We look forward to hearing from you to book your Rwanda tour, Congo tour or Uganda tour to visit the mountain gorillas or lowland gorillas.