How do you know that your gorilla habituation permit is guaranteed?

How do you know that your gorilla habituation permit is guaranteed? Upon purchasing the mountain gorilla permit, you know your gorilla habituation safari is guaranteed. Before securing a gorilla habituation permit, you must have a date when you hope to attend this once-in-a-lifetime safari. Check the availability of gorilla habituation permits first because these permits sell out very fast, especially during the dry season. The dry season is normally June, July, August, September, December, and January.

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The gorilla habituation experience is an adventure where tourists escort a team of habituators to follow semi-habituated mountain gorillas and stay with them for 4 hours. In Uganda, gorilla habituation happens in the southern part of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Only two gorilla families are open for gorilla habituation experience, with 8 gorilla permits per day.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority is the only body selling and regulating gorilla safaris. You can book the gorilla habituation permit from the Uganda Wildlife Authority or through an accredited tour operator like Encounter Africa Safaris.

You need to purchase the gorilla habituation permit in advance because of the overwhelming demand for these permits worldwide. To be on the safe side, you need to purchase the gorilla permit at least 6 months to a year upfront.

Reserving the gorilla habituation permit upfront allows you to secure accommodation of your choice and budget. Finding accommodations for all budgets is challenging during the peak tourism season because of the overwhelming demand.

How do you know that your gorilla permit is guaranteed 

Purchase Gorilla Habituation Permit from Uganda Wildlife Authority

In case you are to plan the gorilla habituation safari by yourself, you have to check for gorilla permit availability from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The Uganda Wildlife Authority is responsible for selling and regulating gorilla permits. You must have a date when you hope to do a gorilla habituation experience and the number of people you hope to travel with. Request for a receipt as confirmation of your full payment. This is what you present to collect the gorilla permit card.

Remember that the gorilla permits are limited to a maximum of 4 per family.

You must have some patience because of the long queue of calls through the reservation office lines of the Uganda Wildlife Authority. If your gorilla permit is secured, collect it from the Uganda Wildlife Authority reservation office before starting the safari. This means you need to spend pre–tour nights in Uganda to allow the chance to pick up your gorilla permit card.

Buy A Gorilla Permit Through an Accredited Tour Operator. 

You can book a gorilla permit through an accredited tour operator like Encounter Africa Safaris. We can assist you in purchasing the gorilla permit for your dates and put together other safari amenities to lift the burden of organizing a gorilla safari.

When we purchase a gorilla permit, we receive a receipt, which we use to collect the gorilla permit card before starting this adventure. We can do it if you wish us to scan this receipt to confirm its purchase.

At Encounter Africa Safaris, we are a certified Uganda and Rwanda safari company with over 10 years of experience in planning African safaris. This expertise has won us great reviews on forums like Trip Advisor, Safari Bookings, and others.

Trust Encounter Africa Safaris with all your gorilla habituation safari arrangements you won't regret.

Top-up gorilla habituation permits time.

Uganda Wildlife Authority accepts installment purchases on gorilla permits. You can make 30% and 70 % gorilla permit payments, respectively. Gorilla permit installment purchase is only guaranteed if you purchase the gorilla permit 90 days before the trekking date and top-up 90 days before the trekking date.

When you forget to top up the gorilla permit, it is re-opened to public booking without your consent. The peak season gorilla permits sell out fast, so if your permit is from June to September and December to January, chances of finding availability are very slim.

Much as an installment gorilla permit purchase is open, you can fully pay for the gorilla permit to save yourself from forgetting to top up.

When your gorilla permit is topped up, you can go on safari without worrying about attending the habituation experience.

Forward personal details to include on the gorilla habituation permit card

Before a gorilla habituation safari, you must forward some personal information to add to your card, which is retrieved on the safari day. 

To collect your gorilla permit, you must forward details like your full name as presented on the passport, date of birth, nationality, expiry date, and others. These are your identification details.

Reconfirm Gorilla permit Serial number.

There is a serial number for every gorilla permit card issued by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. If the gorilla permit card is collected on your behalf, you can reconfirm its validity by calling the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Upon knowing your gorilla habituation experience card has been collected, you can call the Uganda Wildlife Authority to check the serial number of this permit just to be sure it's registered in your name. This you can do towards your gorilla habituation experience days as the gorilla permit cards are reusable and only issued towards the days of the safari.

How can I Book a Gorilla Habituation Experience Permit

 Have a date when you hope to do a gorilla habituation experience safari and a possible number of people you hope to travel with. This helps you to stay on track with checking availability.

Check for gorilla permit availability per your preference dates through a tour operator or directly from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Upon finding availability, we advise tourists to purchase their gorilla permits as soon as possible. This is because their status changes any time since a first come, first served basis is used. During the peak season, the Gorilla permits sell out fast, and none is secured without payment.

To mention a few, forward personal details like nationality, full name as presented on the passport, date of birth, and passport expiry date.

How much is a gorilla habituation experience permit?

The current cost of a gorilla habituation experience permit is $1500 per person per trek for foreign nonresidents, $1000 for foreign residents, and 750000 shs for East African residents.

What is included and excluded in the cost of a Gorilla habituation experience permits gorilla habituation permit includes:

• Park entrance fees.
• Researcher fees.
• Security during gorilla habituation.
• Four hours with the mountain gorillas.
• Briefing before gorilla habituation.
• Local community support.
• Mountain gorilla conservation.

Exclusions of gorilla habituation permit: tips, porters, accommodation, transport, snacks, and any other items of personal nature.

Is the gorilla habituation permit worth the money?

Every penny you spend on purchasing the gorilla permit is worth it, as mountain gorillas are some of the leftover primates of the ice age period. The mountain gorillas only live in Uganda, Rwanda, and D.R.Congo.

They are very vulnerable and endangered primates, so more funds are required to support their sustainable existence. When you purchase a gorilla permit, you support mountain gorilla conservation, and when you hire a porter to carry your gorilla safari gear, you support the local community. The gorilla safari permits are regulated to a maximum of 8 per family for conservation reasons.

When many tourists are allowed to visit the mountain gorillas, the effects of mass tourism may be felt.

Can I reschedule a gorilla habituation experience permit?

The gorilla habituation experience permit can be rescheduled in case you need to be more capable of honoring the pre-booked date. During the gorilla habituation safari preparations, you may later find out that you cannot travel but hope to do so in the future.

You have to follow the below procedure to reschedule the gorilla habituation permit.

Write to Uganda Wildlife Authority requesting to move your gorilla permit dates to a future date. Attach evidence showing why you cannot travel in case you have any.

When your request is approved, your gorilla permit is moved per your request based on the status of availability per day.

Uganda Wildlife Authority accepts two free gorilla permit reschedules for the same permit. However, the executive director is the only one to permit the third time.

What guarantees seeing mountain gorillas on a gorilla habituation experience safari?

Although the gorilla habituation experience mountain gorillas are semi-habituated, you have a 98% chance of finding them. Mountain gorillas live in a particular feeding area for some time and only relocate when necessary, like if food is not enough for the entire family, if a family member dies, and others.

Each day, a team of trackers wakes up earlier than others to follow the mountain gorillas and establish their possible hangout direction. Rangers follow these clues to find the mountain gorillas so that tourists are not left to wander in the wilderness. 

Experienced researchers conduct the gorilla habituation safari each day, and they know where most of these mountain gorillas spend their time.

The heavy weight of the mountain gorillas cannot allow them to move at a fast pace. An average fully grown male mountain gorilla weighs about 300 kilograms, while the females weigh about half this weight. The mountain gorillas may move slowly with this weight.

How dangerous are mountain gorillas?

Mountain gorillas may bear a scaring outlook. However, they are shy and serene primates. In many films and animations, the mountain gorillas are portrayed as violent creatures, but you get surprised upon meeting them. They are calm and down-to-earth primates who mind their business even though you stand before them.

This, however, doesn't mean provoke or tease the mountain gorillas because they have feelings too. When angry, mountain gorillas thump their chests hard, pull grass around them, walk on one foot, hoot, and so much more.

 On the way to find the mountain gorillas, try not to violate the rules of gorilla habituation by shouting and using flash photography because the mountain gorillas recognize you before you do. Like humans, they have a spy network that warns others of your presence before you see them.

What are the guidelines for gorilla habituation experience?

• Wear a clean mask with the mountain gorillas to prevent the coronavirus's spread to these precious primates.
• No feeding the mountain gorillas; if you are eating, do it at least 300 meters from them. This is to prevent any chances of them grabbing it from you, yet they are wild animals that must search for their food.
• Sneezing or coughing before the mountain gorillas may spread an infection, so do it away from them.
• Keep a distance of about 8 meters from the mountain gorillas when you locate them to prevent chances of spreading infectious germs to them.
• Only children aged 15 years and above are allowed to do gorilla habituation experience because of the nature of the entire experience. Hiking to locate the mountain gorillas is challenging at times, which may be challenging for children below this age. Even the time of locating the mountain gorillas is still being determined, which requires patience. A child below this age may not withstand this.
• Littering the forest is forbidden, which may alter the nature of the forest where the mountain gorillas live.
• Only enter the forest with an escorting ranger guide because there are other unhabituated forest inhabitants that you may encounter, and they hurt you.
• Only four hours are allowed with the mountain gorillas when you locate them. They have been habituated to be in the presence of humans for just that time.
• Surrounding the mountain gorillas is forbidden because it makes them feel ambushed.
• Never try to touch their infants because this agitates them and may push them into hiding. As you depart from the mountain gorillas stealthily way away without appearing suspicious before the mountain gorillas.

Contact us to check for availability and book your habituation permit in time.