What can you do if gorillas charges at you
What can you do if gorillas charges at you : Mountain gorilla trekking is one of the most exciting tourism activities in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Hundreds of people folk these countries for a chance to get a glimpse of these famous apes and explore the beauty of the mountain gorilla habitats. Trekkers are always thrilled to go on trekking sprees, more so for the chance to spend time to be exact an hour with the mountain gorillas. However most of them have a lot of questions on what to do on trek when different things happen, like you get tired? Meet a gorilla? Want to take a picture with a gorilla? Etc.
But the most frequent question they usually ask is what do you do if a mountain gorilla charges at you?
Well, we advise that when you are on a mountain gorilla trekking experience you avoid engaging in anything that can cause the mountain gorillas to charge at you. This is the safest way to avoid gorillas charging at you. Before the mountain gorilla trekking, the trekking ranger will give you some guidelines to follow and we are positive if you follow them you will definitely be safe on your trekking experience.
Nonetheless to answer your concern of the mountain gorillas charging at you, this is what you have to do.
Stand still – this should be your first response to a mountain gorilla charge, when your still, you will look less threatening and harmless which will cause the gorilla tor retreat.
Stay Calm and quiet – gorillas are ticked off by noises and disturbing gestures, so for you to get the situation under control you should stay calm and keep silent to not further irritate the gorilla.
Stand low or go low – this helps you becomes smaller to the gorilla, so you can go down slowly or take a form of a really small thing, which will make you really a null threat to the gorillas.
When you do this the gorilla will definitely feel less threatened and leave you alone, however if it keeps charging, just stay calm until help comes.
You should note that incidences of gorillas charging at you are really rare, because gorillas are naturally peaceful animals and only charge at people to defend themselves. A gorilla will not get aggressive for nothing, they have to first feel threatened or have to see one of their own (especially the younger ones) threatened.
Also, the first charges of the gorilla are usually fake, they use them as a tactic to scare you and force you to retreat. They will do loud noises, grunts, hit their chests and tear vegetation to get you scared. When they do that and you stand still and stay calm, they will almost immediately leave you, however if you continue doing whatever you are doing to irritate the gorillas, that’s when the charge will get serious.
Some of the things that cause a mountain gorilla to charge may include but not limited to:- touching them or their young ones, staring them in the eye, taking a flash photo of them, making loud noises around them, throwing things at them, fighting or engaging in argument around them, feeding them and many others. So staying clear of all these things will help you avoid any charges from a gorilla on your mountain gorilla trekking experience.
Mountain gorilla trekking is done all throughout the year in Uganda’s Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga National Park, Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and DRC’s Virunga National Park at 700 USD, 1500 USD and 400 USD respectively.
