Are Mountain gorillas very dangerous?

Generally, mountain gorillas are docile and friendly however if provoked as a form of defence mountain gorillas will charge, it is important to state that 90% of gorilla charges are fake. A silverback only acts aggressive towards a threat to give time for other members of his family to seek safety and they will do that by bobbing their chest and opening their teeth wide to create fear for the approaching danger in order to keep the family safe.

Why do mountain gorillas charge?

Following the rules of the dangerous game approach, every wildlife has its comfort zone, alarm zone, warning zone and critical zone, generally if you keep away from the comfort zone of mountain gorillas, they will not charge at all.

• interaction with other animals

Most especially when they encounter wild gorillas, for quite some time the silverback will be very upset and he may charge to defend the Family.

• Imitating gorillas

Mountain gorillas use vocals and body language to communicate and we as humans may fully not understand the meaning of each vocal so imitating the wrong vocal may result into gorilla charge.

• Flash photography

Gorillas interpret flashlights as fire, having bad memories of fire mountain gorillas are more likely to charge you when you use flash to take pictures.

• Getting too close 

Gorillas value comfort zones so much and the recommended distance between you and the gorilla should be 7 meters so if you get too close the mother with the baby or the silverback may think you want to attack and they may charge to keep the group safe. Though the gorillas can come to you -you are not allowed to go too close to them.

What to do when they charge

The most important rule will be to follow the instructions of the trackers however acting submissive by looking away from the gorillas and moving backwards slowly away is the best thing to do when a gorilla charges.