One of my fondest travel memories to date is going to visit the mountain gorillas. I was fortunate enough to see them in both Uganda and Rwanda. While I understand the controversies surrounding animal tourism, and the risks of habituating these animals (for example, disease), I strongly believe that there are important benefits. In particular, the ability to monitor their health, their populations, their family dynamics, and other characteristics makes habituation incredibly important.
I want to be a silverback one day!
Tourism can bring in valuable dollars, and help the local population value the preservation of the animals (though this distribution of increased income is often incredibly unequal). I do not think that seeing visitors for an hour each day “ruins” the animals, or makes them less wild. There is also not evidence that habituation and visitors have negatively impacted the gorilla populations in either Uganda or Rwanda since the program started. In fact, the presence of trackers in many cases has also discouraged and prevented poaching.
So this Friday, I’m going to share some more gorilla photos (all from Uganda, Rwanda pictures saved for another time…too many fun ones!) that I haven’t posted before. Enjoy!
