Gorillas or orangutans? Two wild ways to see Earth's great apes

From gentle giants in Indonesia to the largest primates in Africa, both wildlife encounters offer unforgettable experiences. But who will you visit first? Our experts help you decide.

By Amy Cooper

Travelling to see great apes in the wild is nothing less than a family holiday. Whether you're off to Africa to visit gentle giants or south-east Asia for charismatic redheads, encounters with our closest relatives are emotional, magical - and sometimes a little heartbreaking. Just like any family reunion.

Gorillas and orangutans, sharing 98 per cent and 97 per cent of our DNA respectively, are critically endangered. I'm not monkeying about when I say that any primate tourism you choose should be scrupulously, transparently ethical. Seek out an expedition either operated or backed by a reputable conservation organisation, such as World Wildlife Fund partner Natural Habitat Adventures, purpose-driven Adventure World or Australian-based Orangutan Odysseys, who all run conservation-focussed trips to help rather than harm.

Which primate to pick? That old silverback Mal might beat his chest and tell you Kong is king, but I go ape for the flame-haired orangutan (meaning "man of the forest"), found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. With fierce intelligence, social sophistication, sharp memory and toolmaking skills, the remarkable ranga could quite easily solve human society's self-inflicted sorrows in a single afternoon, but instead chooses a peaceful existence in beautiful, lush - but tragically dwindling - rainforest paradises.

These are some of the planet's last remaining wildernesses, criss-crossed with rivers leading deep into emerald jungle interior, accessible via thrilling boat trips with major Apocalypse Now vibes. In Malaysian Borneo's Sabah, the winding Kinabatangan River presents your best chance of seeing a wild orangutan. Also in Sabah, Danum Valley Conservation Area's spectacular 43,800 hectares delivers some of the world's best wildlife watching amid 135-million-year-old virgin rainforest - one of the earth's most biodiverse places.

While searching for orangs in Sarawak, you'll glimpse fascinating Iban tribal culture and their longhouse riverside dwellings on a traditional longboat trip, and near the state capital Kuching you can observe rehabilitating rescued orangs from a respectful distance at Semmengoh Wildlife Centre.

The Sumatran orangutan, distinguished from the Bornean by slightly longer facial hair (think Prince Harry rather than Ed Sheeran) lives in the awe-inspiring Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia's last great forest wilderness. Across a million hectares, these tropical lowland rainforests and cloud-topped mountains are the only place on earth orangutans, elephants, tigers, rhinos and leopard roam free together.

That's a big five even more irresistible than the African equivalent, and right on the doorstep in Indonesia. While I don't want to start any gorilla warfare, I reckon the ranga rightfully rules.

By Mal Chenu

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest sounds like an advanced level in a fantasy video game where your warrior avatar wields an enchanted sword to slay the evil Dragon of Ximzho.

Far from the games console, in the real world, Bwindi is home to the greatest of the great apes, the endangered mountain gorillas of the montane forests of sub-Sahara, which you shoot with your Nikon D850 DSLR.

Mountain gorillas are as endangered as Olympic break dancing, albeit with better moves, and there are fewer than a thousand in the wild. It is thought there could have been as few as 250 in the early 1980s. Some argue they should be left alone but every gorilla trek pumps money into preservation efforts. Tourism is actually crucial to their survival.

Most mountain gorillas live in just two places - the aforementioned Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Your trek to either will navigate steep, narrow footpaths through dense jungle behind a machete-wielding, foliage-slashing guide, who knows every inch of the trails and every gorilla by name. Nothing worth having is easy and your exertions will reap the most profound and emotional wildlife encounter there is.

The family you meet will seem eerily familiar. Youngsters roughing and tumbling, a group of mothers chatting and grooming, and a big silverback male watching over them all; silently, menacingly, unmistakably in charge. It's like a "family" barbecue at Tony Soprano's.

Typically, it's one dominant silverback per family, but troops of younger, incel males are common, too. Less socially inclined, they may take a more defensive posture. Crouched on all fours, they look like the hairy front row of a jungle rugby team.

The great naturalist, Dian Fossey, spent years studying mountain gorillas, eventually penning the account of her encounters as Gorillas in the Mist. The subsequent 1988 movie of the same name starring Sigourney Weaver as Fossey and Aussie hottie Bryan Brown as her photographer and love interest, is credited with ending gorilla poaching, leading to the ongoing recovery of the species. To be fair, orangutans have also featured on the silver screen. Who could forget Clyde in Every Which Way but Loose with Clint Eastwood? Oh, that's right - EVERYBODY!

If you visit just one endangered great ape this year, head to Bwindi. Gorillas in the mist leave orangutans in the dust.