How much is a Uganda gorilla habituation permit?

Published by admin on August 18, 2022

How much is a Uganda gorilla habituation permit?

The cost of a Uganda gorilla habituation permit is 1500 USD each for a chance of spending about 4 hours in the forest. The gorilla habituation experience permit is much more expensive than the gorilla trekking permit that goes for 700 USD. However, it is worth it since you spend much more time in the forest during habituation. Knowing how much a Uganda gorilla habituation permit costs helps in the planning of any desired category of your gorilla safari which may be a few days or part of a long Uganda safari experience customized with several other activities and visits to other destinations.

Gorilla Habituation Experience – Rushaga Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

There’s no such an exhilarating way of learning about the elusive mountain gorillas than with a Gorilla habituation experience. Bwindi Forest in Uganda is the only national park where the gorilla habituation experience can be undertaken by tourists. It is an opportunity to meet a group of wild gorillas that haven’t been fully habituated and therefore behave like they would before getting familiar with humans. This is a better way of learning the lifestyle of the mountain gorillas within their natural habitat.

Gorilla habituation can literally be defined as the process of getting mountain gorillas familiar to the presence of human beings by spending time around them till they are fully not bothered about the presence of humans (habituated) and can go on with their daily lives.

Gorilla habituation is only done in Uganda’s Bwindi forest with a maximum of 4 people are allowed to go for the experience.

Habituation is done in the Rushaga sector of Bwindi forest of southern Uganda that hosts 51% of the world’s remaining population of mountain gorillas. Bikyingi gorilla group is one of the gorilla groups where tourists can have a habituation experience. The group has 21 individuals with 1 silverback, 2 sub adults, 9 adult females and 9 infant gorillas. Gorilla habituation is also experienced with the Bushasho gorilla group.

A gorilla habituation process in Uganda may take about 2-3 years. This time is enough for the gorillas to get fully familiar with the presence of human beings. To get to this stage, researchers and gorilla doctors visit the gorillas every day to learn more about the individual gorillas and behaviors. With some good time, these gorillas get used to the presence of researchers and they can even get closer to them. After study of each gorilla individual, they then receive a name. Following this period, a mock exercise is carried out where several people including scientists, journalists and others start visiting the gorilla group. If the gorillas pass the mock exercise then they are referred to as fully habituated and are opened to the public for mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda.

Minimum age for gorilla trekking

The minimum age for a gorilla habituation experience is 15 years of age after purchasing the gorilla habituation permit. The rules and regulations for both activities is almost the same with a few and slight alterations that the guides will explain to you as you head out for the trek.

Unlike gorilla trekking where tourists visit fully habituated gorillas to spend a maximum of 1 hour in their presence gorilla habituation takes you on a 4 hour experience with wild gorillas. The advantage with the gorilla habituation experience is that clients spend about 4 hours with the mountain gorillas which is more time to learn about these rare apes only living in their natural habitat.

The cost of a Uganda gorilla habituation permit is a bit pricey but worth it. Only 4 permits are available each day and we have experience in booking and customizing for you any kind of trip including gorilla habituation.