The rules that actually matter
Gorilla trekking rules in Rwanda — what RDB actually requires
A 7-metre distance rule, a strict age limit, and a health check that happens more informally than you'd expect.
Minimum age — 15, genuinely no exceptions
Rwanda Development Board's rule is firm: visitors must be 15 or older, with no published exceptions. This is worth confirming early if traveling with teenagers, since it can shape which country or which part of a trip works for a family.
Health screening happens at the morning briefing
There's no formal medical test — RDB's guidance excludes visitors with contagious illness (particularly respiratory symptoms, given gorillas' vulnerability to human diseases), and this is assessed informally through self-disclosure and visual check at the morning group briefing rather than a clinical screening.
The 7-metre rule
Visitors are required to maintain a minimum distance of roughly 7 metres from the gorillas once found — though gorillas themselves don't always respect that boundary, and guides manage the group's position rather than the animals' movement.
No flash photography, low voices, no rapid movement
Standard wildlife-encounter etiquette applies: flash photography is prohibited, visitors are asked to keep voices low, and sudden or rapid movements are discouraged — all aimed at minimizing stress to a habituated but still wild animal population.
Group size is fixed at 8, always
Every trekking group is capped at exactly 8 visitors per gorilla family, matched with RDB-certified guides, trackers, and an armed ranger — this fixed structure is part of why the daily 96-permit cap exists in the first place (12 families × 8 visitors).
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