Golden Monkeys in Rwanda, Africa

The name alone enticed me to want to venture out to see the golden monkeys. A critically endangered species, golden monkeys are found only around Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, Africa.

After checking in at the park office and paying for our permits, we piled into SUV’s to drive to a small village that would be our starting point for the hike. Trackers with radios had already been out early that morning to scout out where the monkeys were located.

We walked up a muddy trail past farmers tending their fields of potatoes. Two people who were placed in our group did not wear the appropriate foot wear at all. They were Danish and hemmed and hawed trying to pick their way through the mud until they eventually fell in and became resolved to say, “It’s only mud, it’s only mud. Our travel agent didn’t tell us what to wear.”

Our guide found this chameleon on a bush near the muddy track.

After only walking around twenty minutes, still in farmers’ fields, Eugene, our guide tells us, “The monkeys are nearby and they are excited to see you.” Looking at the forest off in the distance while standing in a potato field, we all looked around a bit perplexed that we were about to see the golden monkeys. We were expecting to hike for a least an hour into the jungle before even having a chance to catch a glimpse of the monkeys.

We left all our things with the guards, because no one was allowed to have anything such as food that might attract negative attention from the monkeys, and followed Eugene around a corner (essentially every trek in and around parks always has a guard with a gun in case they need to scare away cape buffalo.)

Along a stone wall just at the fringes of the forest we got our first glimpse of a golden monkey. A smaller monkey, with a shimmering red coat in the sun, we watched as a troop of golden monkeys played and ate their way along the wall.

At first our group was surprised and a bit disappointed to be standing in potato fields viewing the monkeys, but then we realized how lucky we were. When in the forest, golden monkeys usually hang out in the middle of trees and do not come down to the ground as much for risk of being eaten by wild dogs. A group the day before trekked for hours only to barely be able to get any photos of the monkeys swinging around in the trees.

For us, they were running past our feet – and because we were present the monkeys were even more relaxed because it meant slim chance an eagle would swoop down to try and grab one of them.

The monkeys made their way through the field eating blades of grass and digging up left over potatoes. From what we could tell Rwanda had it down with how they were handling the park borders. In prior times, locals would kill the golden monkeys because they would come down from the forest and eat their crops.

As Eugene explained to us, one of the guides kept walking back and forth to keep the monkeys from wandering too far into the farmers’ fields. Nowadays if the monkeys eat a farmers crops, the farmer can submit a form for reimbursement. The population is becoming more stable if not growing, yet overall the numbers are still small and they remain critically endangered.

A big male can weigh up to 20 kilos.

Females will have between four to six babies in their life span.

This mother and baby were so cute to watch. This baby was still very timid. He got off his mom a few times only to almost immediately get scared of the world and clutch right back onto her.

Average life span is twenty years.

All of these boxes are for bee keeping.

I feel like this little baby is saying, “Mom’s got me.”

This hut was were one of the local farmers would stay overnight guarding the fields from cape buffalo, which can cause a lot of damage to crops.

As we hiked out of the fields and back through the village, we came upon these cute kids playing.

These kids were just running around their yard and once I asked if I could take their picture, they all giggled and piled on top of each other, rolled around and kept putting their heads up and down as if playing peek-a-boo.

Eugene thanked us for coming and paying our park fees. To my eyes, it seemed like the government and Volcanoes National Park were on the ball with conservation. Everyone I talked to in town was on board with seeing the value in protecting the park and the animals for the benefits of tourism it brought to the community. Visiting the Ruhengeri area of Rwanda was a major highlight of our trip. The people were so friendly and welcoming, English was widely spoken and it has one of the world’s most unique parks with gold monkeys glistening in the foreground for hopefully many years to come.

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For more information:

Volcanoes National Park

This activity was in the same area as: Wow! Gorillas in Rwanda, Africa!

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