Golden Monkey Trekking

Golden monkey trekking is the more affordable alternative to gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park, and while it lacks the drama of the gorillas, it has its own particular charm. Golden monkeys — a subspecies of the blue monkey with a vivid orange-gold patch on the back — are endemic to the Virunga highlands and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. They live in the bamboo zone lower on the volcano slopes, travelling in noisy groups of 30–60 individuals.

The trekking permit costs around US$100, making golden monkey trekking accessible to travellers who can't stretch to the gorilla permit. The trek itself follows similar terrain to the gorilla routes — bamboo forest on the lower slopes — but typically takes less time to find the monkeys, who are habituated and relatively predictable in their movements. The monkeys are acrobatic and fast, crashing through bamboo and leaping between stalks at speed; the photography challenges are completely different from gorillas.

Permits can sometimes be obtained on shorter notice than gorilla permits, which need advance booking. The Rwanda Development Board offices in Musanze can arrange same-day or next-day golden monkey permits in the low season.

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The golden monkey is endemic to the Albertine Rift — found nowhere else on earth. Despite being on the endangered species list, relatively little attention has been paid to them compared to the mountain gorilla, largely because they are smaller, faster, and much harder to study. The Volcanoes National Park population is the most habituated in the world; before the trekking programme was established, almost nothing was known about their social behaviour.