Why mountain gorillas and chimpanzees don’t live together
Why mountain gorillas and chimpanzees don’t live together : Though very similar and usually confused with the other mountain gorillas and chimpanzees don’t live together.
Mountain gorillas and Chimpanzees are all huge primates found in forested areas. These animals are herbivores and both feed on fruits, leaves, shrubs and small insects. These apes both share about 95% or more of their DNA with humans hence their intelligence and human nature habits. The differences between these animals are not that many and they are majorly in size, the mountain gorillas are bigger than the chimpanzees and the pinkish color that occurs in chimpanzees but doesn’t occur in mountain gorillas.
Apart from that these apes are similar in all ways, the way the live, how they procreate, their intelligence and many other things. That’s why it’s surprising that these two animal species don’t live together.
The reason for the chimpanzees and mountain gorillas not living together comes down to the type of forest each species lives in. The mountain gorillas live in mountain forests in high altitudes because they survive best in high altitudes well as the chimpanzees live in moderately low rainy forests because they survive in low altitudes. So that’s the major reason why they don’t live together.
On top this there are other scientific reasons that can be explained my wildlife scholars, you can find these reasons in different wildlife journals and publications but for the purposes of this article the above mentioned is the major reason for why they don’t live together.
Uganda is home to both the mountain gorillas and the chimpanzees in different parks across the country. The mountain gorilla parks in Uganda are Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga National park well as the chimpanzee trekking locations in the country are Kalinzu forest, Budongo forest, Ngamba Island, Kyambura gorge and majorly Kibale National park.
All year rounds people visit any of these parks and locations to experience these respective primates in their natural habitats. To experience the primates, people go for either mountain gorilla treks or chimpanzee treks.
In this COVID-19 era, you should be aware that even as you go for your mountain gorilla trekking or chimpanzee trekking experience you will be required to observe all the recommended COVID-19 SOPs for your safety and primates’ safety.
For both the trekking experiences you enter the forest and spend some time searching for the primates, when you eventually find them you will spend an hour with them before you exit the forest. Mountain gorilla trekking experiences take between 5 to 9 hours well as chimpanzee trekking experiences take about 4 to 6 hours. Still the reason for this difference in time is because the mountain gorillas stay deeper in the high altitudes so you spend more time searching for them unlike the chimpanzees that stay in lower altitudes, so you don’t spend that much time searching for them.
The rules and guidelines for mountain gorilla trekking and chimpanzees trekking don’t differ that much and they include but not limited to keeping a 7 meter distance between you and primate, not doing anything that will irritate the primates, don’t litter the forests, don’t use flash photography while taking pictures of the primates, don’t feed the primates, don’t stare into the eyes of the primates, don’t trek when you’re sick especially when you have COVID-19 among other rules. All these rules are communicated to you before the trek and even through your tour operator.
Mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda costs 700 USD and Chimpanzee trekking costs 200 USD. Primate trekking in Uganda is done all year round every year.
