Africa is home to four great ape species: the eastern gorilla (which includes mountain gorillas and Grauer’s gorillas), the western gorilla, the chimpanzee and the bonobo. Visitors can see mountain gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda and Congo; Grauer’s gorillas in eastern Congo; western lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon; chimpanzees in many countries, especially Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania; and bonobos only in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda is the easiest country for seeing both gorillas and chimpanzees on one trip.

Mountain gorillas

Mountain gorillas live only in the Virunga volcanoes, shared by Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, and in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, with at least 1,063 counted in the latest censuses. Trekking groups of up to eight spend one hour with a habituated family. Uganda’s permit is US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November; Rwanda’s is US$1,500. Visits in Congo depend on the security situation. See our guide to where mountain gorillas live.

Other gorillas

Grauer’s or eastern lowland gorillas, the largest gorillas, live in eastern Congo; Kahuzi-Biega National Park has habituated families, but conflict often makes visits impossible. Western lowland gorillas, the most numerous kind and the gorillas seen in zoos, can be visited in a few places in Central Africa, such as Odzala-Kokoua in the Republic of Congo and Dzanga-Sangha in the Central African Republic, usually on expensive, remote trips. The Cross River gorilla on the Nigeria–Cameroon border is too rare and shy to visit. See our guide to the eastern lowland gorilla.

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees live across equatorial Africa. In Uganda, Kibale Forest National Park offers the most reliable chimp tracking, with permits at US$250, rising to US$300 from 1 January 2027; Budongo Forest near Murchison Falls and Kyambura Gorge in Queen Elizabeth are alternatives. Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest and Tanzania’s Gombe Stream, made famous by Jane Goodall, and Mahale Mountains also offer chimp tracking. See our guide to chimpanzee tracking in Kibale.

Bonobos

Bonobos, the chimpanzee’s closest relative, live only south of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The most accessible place to see them is the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary near Kinshasa, which cares for orphans; visits to wild bonobos at research and community reserves are possible but remote and complex. Check your government’s travel advice before planning any trip to Congo.

Other primates worth seeing

Uganda is rich in other primates too: Kibale alone has around 13 species, including red colobus and L’Hoest’s monkeys, Mgahinga has golden monkeys, and black-and-white colobus live in many forests. Ethiopia’s gelada monkeys are another unusual primate experience. See our guides to golden monkeys and a 5-day Uganda primate safari.

Frequently asked questions

Africa’s Primate Conservation Landscape

Africa’s primate tourism product is more varied than the mountain gorilla’s global profile suggests. West Africa’s bonobo — confined to the DRC and sharing more than 98% of its DNA with humans — is accessible through Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary near Kinshasa and several wild populations in the DRC’s Lomako Forest. Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains National Park offers chimpanzee trekking in a forest setting on the shores of Lake Tanganyika that combines the primates with one of Africa’s most remote and scenically dramatic landscapes. The drill and mandrill of Cameroon’s Korup Forest add a New World monkey aesthetic to the African primatology itinerary. Each of these primate tourism options serves a different market segment than Uganda’s gorilla trekking — less accessible, less marketed, and serving the specialist traveller rather than the adventure tourist — but together they represent a continental primate conservation economy whose value is only beginning to be appreciated at the level of international conservation funding.

The comparative primate tourism economy reveals an interesting structural pattern: the destinations with the highest permit prices (Rwanda at $1,500 per person) generate the most tourism revenue per visit but serve a smaller absolute market, while the destinations with lower permit prices (Uganda at $700, DRC at $400) serve larger visitor volumes but generate less per-visit revenue. The optimal point on this price-volume trade-off for conservation funding purposes is not simply the revenue-maximising price — it also involves the conservation-community relationship that high visit volumes generate and the research access that a larger habituated population provides. Uganda’s positioning at the mid-market point reflects an implicit judgement about this trade-off that its tourism authorities have maintained consistently through multiple permit price reviews.