Gorilla Habituation

GORILLA HABITUATION EXPERIENCE

According to Uganda Wildlife Authority, the gorilla habituation experience can be done in Rushaga region of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has currently 12 habituated gorilla families which include 3 groups in Buhoma sector (Mubare, Habinyanja and Rushegura), 4 groups in Ruhija sector (Bitukura, Oruzogo and Kyaguriro A and Kyaguliro B), 4 groups in   Rushaga area (Kahungye, Bweza, Nshongi, Busingye) and 1 group in Nkuringo sector (Nkuringo group).

In addition to the above 12 groups, there are two other semi-habituated gorilla families that have been put aside for gorilla habituation experience and are located in the Nkuringo and Rushaga side of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Why Gorilla Habituation?

Gorillas are naturally afraid of humans and typically will flee or aggressively charge if people get too close to them. The gorillas that are visited by people have undergone “habituation”. This refers to the process, where through daily peaceful contact with humans, gorillas have slowly lost their strong fear of humans and have learned to view them as neutral beings in their environment.

Habituating a group of mountain gorillas usually takes about two years. To habituate a group, they must be tracked and monitored on a daily basis, and slowly over time, the gorillas develop a trustful relationship with observers. The habituation of mountain gorillas is a lengthy and difficult process, ultimately resulting in the gorillas losing their natural fear of humans. Initially the gorillas are fearful of humans and will run away. In the next phase, the gorillas stop fleeing, but may respond to the presence of humans with aggressive charges and other negative behavior that is indicative of stress and not feeling comfortable with human presence.  Finally, the gorillas will react calmly to humans being in their midst and go about their normal activities with only minimal acknowledgement of humans being present. It is only at this last stage that the gorillas can be considered habituated and it is appropriate to start bringing visitors to see them.

Gorilla habituation therefore is a process where wild mountain gorillas are trained to get used to people. Gorilla Habituation may take between two to three years to be completed and during this time, researchers keep on visiting an identified Wild gorilla group on a daily basis. They get to learn more about individual gorillas and the way they behave. With time, these gorillas get used to these researchers and in the long run, each individual gorilla is given a name. Once researchers are sure that these mountain gorillas can be trekked, they then introduce a mock exercise where some few people start visiting it. Once such a gorilla family has passed mock exercise, then it is opened for trekking.

In this experience, clients or tourists can spend more time with mountain gorillas compared to gorilla trekking which is restricted to only one hour. They will be moving with researchers / those who habituate gorillas and spend more time and see how gorillas are habituated.

How is the Gorilla HabituationExperience different from the normal gorilla tracking?

• The package is only available in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in the Rushaga and Nkuringo areas and is not available in Rwanda, or the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The current gorilla groups available for Gorilla Habituation Experience are Bikingi group in Rushaga and Bushaho group in Nkuringo (Bushaho groups at times move towards Rushaga, and tracking may start from Rushaga).
• Those going for this experience should expect to visit semi habituated mountain gorillas which can decide to hide, behave in a manner which is not usual and the experience can be stopped upon advice from researchers.
• With mountain gorilla habituation experience, clients will be moving with researchers / those who habituate gorillas, spend more time and see how gorillas are habituated.

• You spend 4 hours with the Mountain Gorillas instead of one as in normal tracking. Usually, tracking starts at 7:30am at Rushaga or Nkuringo, depending on the group you are visiting.

• Only 4 visitors are allowed per day per group compared with the 8 visitors for the normal Gorilla Trekking.

• You spend more time with the gorillas. For this activity, you spend 4 hours with a Gorilla Family being habituated instead of 1 hour. Considering that you spend about two or more hours searching for the gorillas, you have a full day.
• In terms of cost, a permit for Gorilla Habituation Permit is 1500USD per person per day compared to 600USD for the normal gorilla tracking.

• All the rules and etiquette of gorilla tracking, including clothing and foot wears apply to the Gorilla Habituation Experience.