Tourist gorilla

1990/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia

Between Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda there is a group of volcanoes called Virunga. In its mountains, between 2,500 and 3,000 meters of altitude, inhabits a very special type of gorillas. It is dark blue and black with silver back. The gorilla that inhabits the forests of the Llanada is gray and differs morphologically and adaptively. This Virunga gorilla has shorter limbs, longer hands and different foot.

Today naturalistic trips are fashionable and many tourists approach the mountains of Virunga to see these gorilla. Small groups of visitors increasingly have more gorillas around and are getting used to. But they are not surrounded by anyone. The presence of waterfall is sufficient to prohibit the visit, as these monkeys are easily contaminated. Two years ago, for example, the rubella epidemic was detected. Of course, they were contaminated by some tourist and had to be embedded with shot syringes.

Admitted tourists are entitled to a maximum of one hour stay in the vicinity of the gorillas, but despite that, many people come. Rwandan cow receives a lot of currency through tourism. Coffee is the main source of foreign exchange and the second tourism by gorillas.

Three hundred gorillas inhabit a territory of 40,000 hectares and in recent times have no difficulty to reproduce. Zaire and Uganda are also opening roads for this type of tourism. In Uganda, for example, a hundred gorilla is taken care of for that purpose.