Mountain gorilla trekking Vs golden monkey trekking
Mountain gorilla trekking Vs golden monkey trekking: Mountain gorilla trekking and golden monkey trekking are all primate trekking activities that take you into the primate’s habitat to spend time with the primates for an hour before exiting the habitat. The trekking experiences are mainly about seeing the primates but they also offer you an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the primate habitat.
Well its no wonder, travellers folk the East African region all year round for these primates, for the trekking experience. However even though thousands come for these trips its intresting to see how much most people are always asking what’s the diffence between the two trekkings; mountain gorilla trekking and golden monket trekking. And that’s the reason for this article, we want to highlight the difference betweemn Mountain gorilla trekking and golden monkey trekking.
Really what we are going to do in this article is just share the aspects of this of both trekkings and you will decide the difference for yourself.
Animals
Mountain gorillas are huge social apes with a human like face that live in families of 10 to 20 individuals led by a male called silverbacks. The golden monkeys are small social playful primates with a distinct golden colour on their body especially the heads and the tails.
Habitat
The mountain gorillas stay in mountainous forests so they always in high attitudes of the forests so, when you trek the gorillas you are trekking in high altitudes. On the other hand, golden monkeys stay in lower altitudes forests where they live and eat. So when you trek the golden monkeys you are trekking in quite lower altitudes.
In Uganda the mountain gorilla trekking experience is done at either Bwindi National Park or Mgahinga National Park. Golden monkey trekking is done in Mgahinga National Park.
In Rwanda Mountain gorilla trekking is done in Volcanoes National Park and Golden monkey trekking is done in nyugwe national park.
The democratic republic of Congo has a few golden monkeys in Virunga National Park.
Trekking experience
The mountain gorilla trekking experience starts in the morning at 7am with a brief at the headquarters before you head into the forest to find the gorillas. The trek to the mountain gorillas takes between 2 -3 hours then you spend one hour with the gorillas before you head out 2-3 hours descending the forest.
The golden monkey trekking experience starts at 7am for the morning session and 2pm for the afternoon session. You will have a brief at the park headquarters before you head into the forest and then you will take a trek in the forest for about 1- 2 hours before you land on the golden monkeys. You will have an hour with the monkeys and then trek back 1-2 hours out of the forest.
Trekking rules
The trekking rules for both treks are the same really they include but not limited to keeping a distance between you and the primates, don’t touch the primates, don’t feed the primates, don’t engage in anything that will affect the primates, don’t cough or squeeze into the primates, don’t use flash photography, don’t trek while you are ill among other things.
Trekking seasons
We can safely say, all year round is a good trekking season for the mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. Though most trekkers prefer to trek during the dry season when the trails are dry and easier to trek.
