The Other Congo

A gorilla pauses for a leafy snack.

For years, Rwanda has owned gorilla tourism, while the Republic of the Congo gets mistaken for its dangerous eastern neighbor. The result is one of the most extraordinary wildlife experiences on earth

By Mary Holland

If your friends went “gorilla tracking,” it’s highly likely they did so in Rwanda. There, mountain gorillas roam the misty Virunga Mountains, a volcanic range shared with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or D.R.C., and Uganda. Rwanda has done an extraordinary job of promoting them—pushing eco-tourism to fund conservation, welcoming splashy lodges, and serving as the backdrop for the 1988 biopic Gorillas in the Mist, about American primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey.

But draw a line west, over the D.R.C. almost to the Atlantic coast, and you reach the Republic of the Congo, where another great gorilla READ ON