Gorilla habituation experience, what crosses our minds is the hours that clients spend with the Gorillas, but we forget deep about the deep meaning of Gorilla habituation experience. The experience is a learning process of how our close relatives are tamed to become familiar to human beings. This means informative information is conveyed during the process from the park’s rangers and trackers as they take the clients through all processes. This sounds magical but the rangers and trackers, plus researchers, combine the work that is done in five years, to be narrated only in the four hours you spend in meters with our close relative in their natural habitat. We have two Gorilla families available for Gorilla habituation, the Kutu family and Bikingi Family located between the Rushaga sector and Nkuringo Sector.
How to Experience Gorilla Habituation
The activity starts with a gathering at the park headquarters for a briefing about the dos and don’ts when out meet the Gorillas in their natural habitat, NB. The experience is carried out on the semi-habituated Gorillas, those that are still under the process of habituation, families like Kutu were available for the habituation experience when the family had undergone the monitoring for 2 years. From here, you drive for a short time to a place called Nyabaremura, where you meet with the rangers and trackers to start your Gorilla habituation experience in the forest, and a minimum level of fitness is required to hike through the hills and steep valleys as a trek to find the forest giants.
When does the four hour start?
Unlike Gorilla tracking, where you first meet the Gorillas and start counting the one hour. But with Gorilla habituation experience, the rangers start calculating your four hours when you come to fresh trails that indicate that the Gorillas are not so far from you. As I mentioned earlier that it is a learning process, by the fresh trails I refer to fresh broken tree branches, fresh droppings, and footsteps to mention but a few, so the rangers and trackers begin the explanations and information from there as they show you how they do the habituation process, you continue to follow the trail until you get to where the Gorillas are that very day. You are allowed to take pictures as the clock counts.
How many People are allowed to visit the semi-Habituated Gorillas?
Unlike Gorilla tracking, where a group of 6 pax is allowed in a day, for Gorilla habituation, only 4 people are allowed to do the experience, because they spend a long time while doing the experience and since the Gorillas are semi-habituated, wouldn’t need a lot of commotion from the people as they can charge negatively at the visitor’s presence.
What are the requirements to do Gorilla Habituation Experience?
Some of the requirements to do the four-hour Gorilla Habituation experience, you must be above the age of 15 years as the minors are not allowed by the authority to do any trekking activities, you must abide by the laws of Gorilla trekking, you have to avail yourself on the day stated for the Gorilla habituation experience and failure to do so, you wait for another date and pay for another permit. The most vital requirement is the Gorilla habituation permit. As the name states it is a permit, it is something that gives a visitor authority to do the activity of Gorilla Habituation Experience, the permit has the visitor’s details, the date of trekking, and the stamp from Uganda Wildlife Authority to certify the validity and authenticity of the permit, the permits show the amount you have paid for the activity as well.
Cost of the Gorilla Habituation Permit and where can one get the Gorilla habitation permit
Gorilla habituation permit costs USD1500. per person per trek and it gives you four hours from when you get to the fresh trails. In Uganda, Uganda wildlife Authority is the body responsible for the issuing of these permits and it has its headquarters in Kampala. Great Adventures Uganda is the only trusted tour operator who can book for you the Gorilla habituation permits from UWA, and arrange for you all other services, you can take a look at our 3 Day Gorilla Habituation tour for more details. But all our packages are all-inclusive and we do not book Gorilla Habituation permits only. Once you confirm your tour with us, we will require you to pay for the permit and we book it for you in advance. After we have all the permit confirmations, we will send you scanned copies of your Gorilla habituation permit for your record.
What is Gorilla Habituation cost cutting?
Gorilla habituation is cost-cutting in a way that it gives you four hours at USD1500, per person per trek that means you are saving your pocket USD900.00. This is because you will need to pay USD2400.00 to have the four hours with normal Gorilla tracking and this means you will to trek 4 times. One-hour trek to have the slightly the same experience, why slightly the same? Because you will still not have enough information like the one ranges and trackers offer when doing the Gorilla Habituation Experience.
The Gorilla habituation experience saves you from the four days back and forth movement as to have the four-hour tracking experience as with normal tracking each day you are given one out of staying in meters with the Gorillas but with Habituation experience, you are given four hours and a very informative talk from the rangers and trackers as you follow the fresh trails to meet the Gorillas where they are that very day. Gorillas are wild animals and always on the move, so you can have a shorter or a longer walk before you meet your next relatives in their natural habitat.
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