GORILLA HABITUATION EXPERIENCE

Gorilla Habituation involves an act of training wild gorillas to become used to human beings. It is the effort of different groups of people like the Trackers, conservationists, park rangers and researchers to mention a few.  It is a learning experience that has just been introduced and has become a stable activity under Uganda Wildlife Authority on a small scale.

Gorilla Habituation experience only restricts a maximum of 4 people each day. Unlike Gorilla trekking that limits ones interaction with the gorillas to only an hour, Gorilla Habituation allows a person 4 hours in the company of the gorillas. Also, one spends a little bit more -US$1500 for each person needing to do the Habituation experience dissimilar from the US$600 paid for gorilla tracking.

During this process of Habituation, the people get to understand the gorillas deeper and individually, know their behaviors and even get to the point of naming every single one of them. In the end, if the researchers are certain that the wild gorillas are used to the presence of people; a mock exercise is done as a way of testing to prove their facts. When the gorillas pass this kind of exercise which now includes journalists and scientists, the gorilla group is then available for trekking.

There are 11 Gorilla Groups set aside for Habituation and they include Habinyanja, Rushegura and Mubare which are found at Buhoma, North of the park, at Rushaga in the South you will find Mishaya, Bweza, Nshonji, Kahungye, Busingye and the Nkuringo gorilla group. Far off in the East at Ruhija are the Oruzogo, Kyaguriro and Bitukura gorilla groups. However out of all these, only two groups at Nkuringo and Rushaga were set aside as the gorilla families available for habituation. During this process, the people get to understand the gorillas deeper and individually, know their behaviors and even get to the point of naming every single one of them. In the end, if the researchers are certain that the wild gorillas are okay with the presence of people, a mock exercise is done as a way of testing to prove their facts. When the gorillas pass this kind of exercise which now includes journalists and scientists, the gorilla group is then available for trekking.

 

Gorilla Tracking Rules:

*Do not visit the gorillas if you have a cold or other infectious illness.

*Human waste should be buried 30cm deep.

*Maximum number of visitors is eight persons per gorilla group

 

What to do when you are with the Gorillas:

  1. Maintain a 7m(21ft) distance from the Gorilla
  2. Smoking, eating and drinking are not permitted during tracking.
  3. If you want to sneeze or cough cover your face and turn away from the Gorillas, as they can catch coughs and colds from humans.
  4. Visits are limited to one hour per gorilla group per day.
  5. Do not use Flash photography.
  6. Keep low of your voices.