Advantages Of Doing Gorilla Habituation Experience In Rushaga Instead Of The Normal One Hour Gorilla Trek
Advantages Of Doing Gorilla Habituation Experience In Rushaga Instead Of The Normal One Hour Gorilla Trek
Gorilla habituation experience is currently done in the southern part of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The south sector of the park is composed of the Nkuringo area and Rushaga area. The Rushaga area is also rich with gorilla families, currently amounting to about 8 fully habituated families and open to public booking.
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Currently, only two gorilla families are open for gorilla habituation experience, where tourists accompany a team of researchers and habituators to follow and note down some traits about the mountain gorillas under this program.
Unusual behavior like retreating into the wilderness, chest-thumping, and others. No need to panic, but listen to the advice from the researchers as they now know how to deal with the chimpanzees. They know their traits and how to deal with them.
The gorilla habituation experience is an adventure where tourists escort a team of researchers and trackers in the wilderness to follow a semi-habituated gorilla family and stay with them for four.
For extra time with these adorable primates. Gorilla habituation, on the other hand, gives tourists ample time, which is four hours to immerse into the lives of the mountain gorillas.
In terms of accommodation, the Rushaga area has a number of options, including accommodations in the Nkuringo area, where you can spend the night before or after the gorilla habituation experience. The accommodations in the Rushaga area are graded into luxury, mid-range, and budget facilities.
What Are The Advantages Of Doing Gorilla Habituation Experience Instead Of Gorilla Trekking
Extra Time With The Mountain Gorillas
During the gorilla habituation experience, you have four hours of viewing the mountain gorillas. You sock into some of the unseen life of the mountain gorillas as one hour gives you less exposure to their daily life.
As a tourist, you may learn about most family members’ traits, let them move closer, identify the gorillas by name, and put down some notes, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some of these notes written during the gorilla habituation experience is what is passed over to the tourists when they visit during gorilla trekking.
Provides Time For Taking Variety of Photos Or Filming The Mountain Gorillas
With gorilla habituation experience, tourists on commercial gorilla safaris like photography or filming have more time in the wilderness. During gorilla trekking, there is less time, just one hour, with the mountain gorillas. This reduces the chances of taking the best shots and filming the best scenes of the mountain gorillas.
During the gorilla habituation experience, you have more than four hours to capture some of the best mountain gorilla moments.
Spot More Primates During Gorilla Habituation Experience
Apart from the mountain gorillas, during the gorilla habituation experience, you can identify a variety of other primates that Bwindi Impenetrable National Park hosts. During gorilla trekking, chances of spotting most of these primates are minimal.
Gorilla Habituation Is Double Safari Opportunity For Keen Birders
For ornithologists on gorilla habituation experience, you have a double chance of seeing the mountain gorillas and a variety of birds, including Albertine endemics. Bwindi’s impenetrable national park has a record of over 350 bird species, including about 7 on the IUCN red list.
You may spot some birds: Rwenzori Turaco, Handsome Francolin, Shelley’s Crimsonwing, Red-Faced Woodland, Western Green Tinkerbird, African Hill Babbler, and Several Others.
Creates Bragging Rights, Especially When A Gorilla trekking FamilyFamily is finally confirmed
As gorilla habituation process precedes forming a gorilla trekking family, when you take part in gorilla habituation, you are one of the lucky tourists to help create a new gorilla trekking family.
The Gorilla habituation process is where researchers and habituators follow a wild gorilla family for some time to get them used to human presence without altering their nature. During the gorilla habituation experience, you may be asked to put down some of your observations during the four hours. Some of this information is passed down to the tourists during gorilla trekking.
It feels even greater and satisfying when the FamilyFamily you visited for gorilla habituation is finally confirmed and ready for trekking. Some tourists think they were part of the journey to make that gorilla family, especially when they do a repeat gorilla safari.
What Is The Cost Of Gorilla Habituation Permit?
Currently, a gorilla permit costs $ 1,500 per person per trek for foreign residents, $ 1,000 for foreign residents per person per trek, and 750,000 shs for East African residents.
The price of the gorilla habituation permit supports the conservation of the mountain gorillas that were pronounced endangered by the 1980s after a census by the Dian Fossey team. The gorilla population results showed that 250 mountain gorillas were living then.
To keep conserving the mountain gorillas, funds are required, so through the sale of the gorilla habitation permits, part of these funds are accumulated.
What Is Encompassed In The Gorilla Habituation Permit Cost?
When you purchase your gorilla habituation permit, some of the inclusions in the cost are:
Park entrance fees for the day, which lasts 24 hours; security during gorilla trekking; researcher fees; local community support; mountain gorilla conservation support; four hours with the mountain gorillas; ranger guide fee; and certificate after completing the trek.
Upon securing a gorilla permit, you must attend this lifetime safari experience. The gorilla permits for habituation experience are limited to four tourists per day. Two gorilla families are currently open to gorilla habituation experience, meaning 8 permits are available for public booking each day.
When Is The Best Time To Do Gorilla Habituation Experience?
Gorilla habituation experience is open all year; however, the dry season, which is normally June, July, August, September, December, and January, is most preferred.
Although Bwindi forest is known for experiencing rains regularly without warning, which creates a misty appearance, the dry season is quite different. More sunlight penetrates through the dense canopy, and the trails are more passable, with regulated undergrowth protruding over.
The mountain gorillas make a lot during the dry season when the forest has less precipitation. The trails are dryer and clearer as you walk in the wilderness. Even other primates and forest inhabitants are more active in the dry season. Taking photos of under great weather is more possible in the dry season.
During the wet season, that usually is March, April, May, And November, because of the extreme cold conditions that may drop to about 7 degrees centigrade, even the mountain gorillas tend to move to the slopes or deep in the valleys. Visitors must hike some plateaus or ridges to locate the mountain gorillas.
What Are The Requirements For Gorilla Habituation Experience?
The Gorilla Permit
Everyone hoping to have a gorilla habituation experience must secure a gorilla permit for the date of their choice. Each day, a maximum of four gorilla permits are opened for public booking, yet two gorilla families are preserved for this activity.
Accommodation To Book During Gorilla Habituation Experience
Reserving a suitable accommodation facility with excellent service gives you comfort and memories to recap about upon returning home. For gorilla habituation experience, you need accommodations in the southern sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
The Bwindi accommodations in the southern sector are categorized into luxury, mid-range, and budget facilities.
Some of the accommodations of Bwindi National Park include:
Clouds Lodge, Rushaga Gorilla Safari Lodge, Nkuringo Gorilla Lodge, Rushaga Gorilla Lodge, Bwindi Backpacker’s Lodge, Ichumbi Lodge, And Others.
Gorilla Habituation Gears
To complete the four hours and during the search, you must have the right gorilla trekking gear like safari attire, insect repellant, safari hat, and so much more. Do not expect to purchase them on the ground because you may need more time for all you need. You need to pack relevantly and light for your gorilla habituation experience.
Have Some level of Fitness Before Gorilla Habituation Experience
Before the gorilla habituation experience, you must have some level of fitness as the nature of the topography of this area is volcanic, with remains as ridges and plateaus where mountain gorillas may spend part of their time. If the gorillas have some time on the slopes, you need to be with some fitness level.
You can do simple exercises to keep your limbs in shape and not get muscle pulls while trekking to find the mountain gorillas.
Be Healthy Before Gorilla Habituation Experience
During the gorilla habituation experience, you are required to be in good health without a communicable infection like flu, cholera, cough, COVID-19, and so much more. This is because mountain gorillas are highly susceptible to human infections that may lead to their massive death.
Gorilla conservation has taken a long time, and a lot of money has been and is still being injected into this venture. Even the death of one mountain gorilla is a big blow to gorilla conservation.
Sustainable gorilla conservation is a top priority, superseding all other activities, including gorilla habituation experience.
Follow Age Limit For Gorilla Habituation Experience
The age limit for gorilla habituation experience is 15 years and beyond. This is because of the expected nature of this activity. You may have to hike to locate the mountain gorillas; the four hours of following the mountain gorillas may be too long for a child below 15 years. At a glance, the outlook of the mountain gorillas is scary, which may prompt a child below 15 years to shout or react in an impulsive way. When mountain gorillas are faced with such a reaction, they may move into the deeper forest.
How Long Is Gorilla Habituation Experience?
The duration of gorilla habituation experience depends on a number of factors prevailing in the wilderness. Some tourists locate the mountain gorillas in two hours while others may take more time depending on factors like:
The proximity of the mountain gorilla food, the weather conditions of the day, the pace of other tourists, in case of a forest fight, and several others.
Upon locating the mountain gorillas, only four hours are allowed with them. You need to follow the rules of gorilla habituation experience given by the ranger guides and the team of researchers. These mountain gorillas are still very sensitive to humans’ presence, so that any mistake may cause a stampede in the forest.
What Are The Rulebooks Of Gorilla Habituation Experience?
- Try not to chase the mountain gorillas, as you may scare them and push them into hiding. Although they are habituated to human presence, they are still wild animals not choreographed but possess natural traits.
- If you catch a communicable infection like cough, flu, Covid-19, and others, volunteer to stay behind.
- Keep a distance of about 8 meters from the mountain gorillas when you meet them. This is one of the preventive measures to protect them from catching human infections.
- Try not to mimic the mountain gorillas because you may not know what you may be saying, which may cause a stampede in the forest.
- If you wish to smoke or eat, do it at least 200 meters from the mountain gorillas so they cannot grab it from you.
- Littering the forest is forbidden as it alters the nature of the forest where mountain gorillas live.
- Only fours are allowed with the mountain gorillas when you locate them. This is the only time they are habituated before the mountain gorillas.
- If you wish to defecate yourself, ask the ranger guide to dig at least 30 centimeters deep and bury everything well beyond recognition.
- No taking flash photographs during the gorilla habituation experience as this may scare the mountain gorillas.
- Try to keep your voices low when searching for the mountain gorillas in the forest. This is because they are highly sensitive to new occurrences in their vicinity.
- When you wish to eat or smoke, do it away from the mountain gorillas, as they may be enticed to pick it from you and eat.
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