Volcanoes National Park

Volcanoes National Park is one of the few gorilla parks in Uganda. This is 160km² national park and it protects the Rwandan sector of the Virunga Mountains, range of six extinct and three active volcanoes which straddles the borders with Uganda and the DRC. The Volcanoes Park is part of a contiguous 433 sq km Transfrontier conservation unit that also includes the Virunga National Park and Mgahinga National Park, which protects the DRC and Ugandan sectors of the Virunga respectively.

Gorillas and golden monkeys aside, primates are poorly represented by comparison with other forests in Rwanda and Western Uganda.  Little information is available regarding the current status of other large mammals, but 70-plus species have been recorded in Uganda's neighboring Mgahinga National Park, most of which probably only occur in the larger Rwanda section of the Virungas.  Elephant and buffalo are still quite common; judging by the amount of spoor encountered on forest trails, but is very timid and infrequently observed. Also present are giant forest hog, bush pig, bushbuck, black-fronted duiker, spotted hyena, and several varieties of small predator.  Recent extinctions, probably as a result of deforestation, include the massive yellow-backed duiker and leopard.

GORILLA TRACKING IN VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
This activity still remains the most popular in the park, with a total of up to 40 permits issued daily, eight for each of the five habituated troops. But Volcanoes National Park is not just about gorilla tracking, it has other activities like trekking, hiking which are now well organized, from a two-day ascent of Karisimbi to a non-strenuous nature walk to a cluster of crater later, but the most exciting innovation is that tourists can now visit habituated troop of the near-endemic golden monkey.