What is a Gorilla Habituation Experience?
What is a Gorilla Habituation Experience?
What is a Gorilla Habituation Experience? Spend four hours with mountain gorillas by booking our gorilla habituation experience safaris. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park through the Uganda Wildlife Authority introduced mountain gorilla habituation experience. It targeted all clients with an interest in the activity effective 1st January 2014. All those with an interest in the habituation experience pay USD1500 per person per experience. According to the Uganda Wildlife Authority, four gorilla families have been put aside and dedicated for this experience in the Rushaga region of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
What is a Gorilla Habituation Experience? Gorilla habituation is a process of helping wild mountain gorillas to get used to people (Not actual definition). Gorilla Habituation may take between two to three years to complete. During this time, researchers keep on visiting an identified Wild gorilla group daily. They get to learn more about individual gorillas and the way they behave. With time, these gorillas get used to these researchers, and in the long run, each gorilla gets a name. Once researchers are sure that tourists can trek these mountain gorillas, they then introduce a mock exercise. This exercise allows a few people including scientists, and journalists to start visiting it. Once such a gorilla family has passed the mock exercise, then the park opens it for trekking.
Most Popular Safaris
3 Days Gorilla Habituation Experience
4 Days Gorilla Trek Uganda & Habituation
5-Day Uganda Chimp & Gorilla Habituation Safari
3 Days Fly-in gorilla habituation safari
6 Days Akagera and Lowland Gorilla Safari
5 Day Gorilla Habituation & Chimps Safari
5 Days Gorillas & Whitewater Rafting
4 Days Uganda Gorilla Trekking from Kigali
4 Day Rwanda Gorillas & Culture
8 Days Uganda Safari from Kigali
10-Day Congo & Uganda Combined Safari
In this experience, clients spend more time (four hours) with mountain gorillas. This is longer compared to gorilla trekking, which is restricted to only one hour. Normal gorilla trekking can indeed take three-quarters of the day but this involves a trek to and from the gorillas. However, the actual time to spend with the gorillas for observation and photography is only one hour. With mountain gorilla habituation experience, clients will move with experts/those who habituate gorillas.
Then, they spend more time and see how scientists and researchers habituate gorillas to get used to human beings. This experience has attracted more tourists since you spend more time (Four hours) with the gorillas. The only difference is that those going for this experience should expect to visit semi-habituated mountain gorillas. Such gorillas may decide to hide and behave in a manner that is not usual and the experience. If you follow guides and scientists’ advice and techniques, you can stop this gorilla behavior.
How to Go the Gorilla Habituation Experience
What is a Gorilla Habituation Experience- how to partake in the activity. We book gorilla habituation experience permits and so much more. All those with an interest in Gorilla habituation safaris for 2024-25 should contact us for more details. Once you send us an email by filling out the form at the end of this article, we’ll check for permit availability on your desired dates. Then, we’ll get back to you, requesting that you deposit so that we can buy them before UWA sells them out. You’ll attach passport copies as they’re crucial in booking the gorilla habituation permits. Afterward, we’ll make other arrangements like transport, accommodation, driver-guide, and others to ensure a smooth safari after making the full payment. Then, you’ll have to show up on your travel dates for an amazing experience.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has about 19 habituated gorilla families which include Mubare, Habinyanja, and Rushegura in the Northern section of the park called Buhoma, then Bitukura, Oruzogo and Kyaguriro in the Eastern Part of Bwindi in Ruhija, Nshonji, Mishaya, Busingye, Bweza, Kahungye in Rushaga and then Nkuringo Gorilla Family all in the south. At the moment, eighty-eight gorilla permits are available for purchase from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Two gorilla families have been put aside for gorilla habituation experience and are located in the Nkuringo and Rushaga side of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. For this reason, gorilla habituation safaris can only be done in the southern part of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
How Much Is A Uganda Gorilla Permit?
Uganda Gorilla trekking cost
As per Uganda Wildlife Authority notice, the cost of Uganda gorilla trekking permits from 1st July 2024 to 30th June 2026 will be $800 for foreign nonresidents, $700 for international residents, African residents $500, and 300000shs for East Africans.
The cost of a Uganda gorilla trekking permit covers park entrance fees, ranger guides, one hour with the mountain gorillas, security, certificate, mountain gorilla conservation, community support, government tax, and others.
Exclusions in the cost of Uganda gorilla permit: porter hire, accommodation, transport, and other personal expenses.
Gorilla Habituation Permit cost
A Uganda gorilla habituation permit costs $1500 per person per trek for foreign nonresidents, $1000 for foreign residents, $1000 for African residents, and 750,000 for East Africans.
The gorilla habituation permit cost covers the researcher fee, four hours with the mountain gorillas, and park entrance fees. It also covers a certificate, security, mountain gorilla conservation, local community support, government tax, and others.
What Are The Rules Of Gorilla Habituation Safaris In Uganda?
You’ll have Only four hours with the mountain gorillas during the gorilla habituation experience.
Wear a clean facemask when you find the mountain gorillas. This was adopted after the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent any chances of spreading these germs to the mountain gorillas.
Never surround the mountain gorillas when you locate them. Remain in a tight group so that they do not feel as if you have ambushed them.
Keep a distance of about 8 meters from the mountain gorillas when you locate them. This is another preventive measure to avoid spreading any infection to these primates.
The park forbids Using flash photography as it may scare the mountain gorillas.
Never smoke or eat 200 meters from the mountain gorillas because they may grab it, and yet they are wild animals that must search for their food and not depend on human provision.
Burry all human fecal materials in a hole of about 30 centimeters. Burry beyond recognition because the forest dwellers may exhume it.
Spitting on vegetation contaminates it, so keep the food safe for the mountain gorillas by not spitting on it.
Children who are 15 and over are the ones eligible to do gorilla tours in Uganda.
Contact Safari Vacations and Travel Services for more information and booking permits by filling out the form below. We’ll make sure that you have the most satisfying gorilla experience.
