Things You Never Knew About Gorillas

Gorillas are the largest extant genus of primates  by size, they are ground dwelling and predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa

The DNA of gorillas is highly similar as that of a human from 95% to 99% depending on what is counted. 

These are the things you might have never known about  Gorillas.

• Gorillas are the largest living primates, the family of animals that includes monkeys apes and humans. Amature male gorilla can be over 6 feet tall and weigh 300 to 500 pounds
• Like humans  gorillas have two legs and arms, ten fingures and ten toes, small ears on the side of the head, foward looking eyes and 32 teeth.
• Gorillas normally walk by putting their feet flat and walking on their knuckles of their hands, they can stand up right but they don't do it very often.when they do its often to chest slap which can show excitement or aggression.
• Gorrilas can live more than 50 years, new born babies are very small, weighing only about 4.5 pounds. they are helpless at birth and depend on their mothers for about three years and they usually stay in their family group as they grow up.
• Gorillas can communicate with each other with the use of gestures, body postures and facial expressions,vocal sounds, and chestslaps drumming and odours
• Gorrilas are very intelligent and they share with us a full range of emotions like, love, hate grief,joy greed ,generosity,pride shame and jealousy.
• Gorillas sleep about 13 hours each night and rest for several hours at mid day, they build new sleeping nests every night by bending nearby plants into a springy platform usually on the ground and in low trees.
• A typical Gorilla family includes one silverback the strongest male and the undisputed leader, one immature  male between 8 and 13 years old, three or four adult females who ordinarily stay with the silver back for life.
• Gorillas are shy and peaceful, the only natural enemy of gorillas has been man.

Gorillas are among the animals that are the very liable to extinction if not conserved well and given the real attention they deserve if we really need them in the future, and we really do.

Rwanda eco-tours In Responsible Tourism

There was a time  when tourism was just a routine of  Tour companies,Guides and Tourists, when less  was known that within that cycle there was a loop hole as some of the important stake holders and issues were not being addressed.

Within this cycle there was no  involvement of the local people and eco-tourism which tends to look at environmental conservation and sustainable development, the all above mentioned stakeholders are very important in realising responsible tourism and conservation

What is responsible tourism? It's the one that creates better places for people to live in and better places to visit.

The 2002 Capetown declaration of responsible tourism in destinations defines responsible tourism as follows;

• Generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well being of the host communities.
• Improves working conditions and access to the industry.
• Involves the local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances.
• Makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity.
• Provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people and a greater understanding of local cultural, social environmental issues.
• Is culturally sensitive,encourages respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence

Tourism used to be the coming of tourists and making them tour wherever they wanted to tour without impacting the local communities and the environment. Its in this regard there fore  that Rwanda eco-tours has been involved in practicing responsible tourism as it is in its core principles as a tour company that knows the impacts of responsible tourism in the the tourism cycle as a whole.

Here,Guests are Participating in a traditional "intore" warrior dance.