Are you looking for mountain gorillas in Virunga national park? The park was named after the 8 Virunga Volcanoes and it is found in the eastern side of DR Congo. It lies on a total area of 7800 square kilometers.

The park was formed in 1925 thus the park becoming the oldest park in Africa and 2rd oldest in the world after Yellowstone in USA. It was initially in the past made to protect the endangered mountain gorillas and later a lot of other animals where discovered and where also protected from this place.

Gorillas are the most wonderful things that most travelers love to see in the park.  Virunga, Bwindi, Mgahinga and Volcanoes national parks are the few areas in the world to find the endangered mountain gorillas.

Virunga is an interesting park because it is a virgin and is visited by less people hence making it less crowded.

Gorilla trekking has been disrupted on various times but it was first disrupted after independence when the activities of the park where put on stand still for so long and the park management deteriorated.

However since 2013, the parks situation is normal and now DRC has around 6 gorilla families available and ready to be tracked. A gorilla permit in the Virunga costs 400 USD if compared to that of Uganda which costs 700 USD and 1500 USD for Rwanda hence making it the cheapest gorilla trekking park.

The habituated families in the park are Kabirizi family and has around 34 family members and is located in the Bukima sector of the national Park.

Other families include Rugendo family led by Rugendo silverback, Humba family headed by Humba silver back, Lulengo family led by Lulengo , Mapuwa family headed by Mapuwa silver back and Munyanga family. Munyanga family was opened for trekking in 2008

As it is with Rwanda and Uganda, only 8 people are supposed to visit the gorilla group per day and will be allowed to take only one hour with gorillas.

Safety measures are also taken to prevent humans from infecting the gorillas with human diseases that are infectious because these species are prone to human infections and they are known to have a low immunity.