There is always no specific definition of Gorilla Habituation experience. However, it can be known as the process of training wild gorillas to become used to the sight of people. It involves different groups of people like the trackers, conservationists, trackers, researchers and rangers among others who take a period of about 2 to 3 years completing the habituation adventure. It’s a learning experience that has just recently became a stable activity that is presented by the Uganda Wildlife Authority on a small scale. This experience only restricts the persons to a maximum of 4 each day, and bookings for this kind of activity are to be done 6 months prior to that actual habituation day specifically during the months of December all through to March and July to October.
Contrasting gorilla trekking that limits one’s interaction with the gorillas to only an hour, gorilla habituation allows a person 4 hours in the company of the gorillas. More so, one spends a little bit more i.e US$1500 for each person who need to do the habituation experience. This is somehow more expensive than the US$ 600 paid for gorilla tracking. Since this experience is hardly existent in Rwanda and DRC, one can find it inside the Ugandan borders at the Bwindi impenetrable forest National Park. This is where you get close to the 11 habituated gorilla groups. During the process, the people get to understand the gorillas deeper and individually, know their behaviors and also get to the point of naming every single one of them. In the end, in case 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.
Bwindi impenetrable national park through the UWA introduced mountain gorilla habituation experience to all those interested clients in 2014. All those that are interested in the experience. According to Uganda Wildlife Authority, there have put a side a gorilla family for the experience in Rushaga region of Bwindi national park. During this experience, the clients spend more time with the mountain gorillas compared to gorilla trekking which is restricted to only one hour. It’s also true that gorilla trekking can take three quarters of the day but this involves trekking to and from the gorillas but the exact time spent with gorillas for the observation and the photography is only one hour.
With this process of gorilla habituation experience, the clients will be moving with the researchers/ those who habituate the gorillas, spend more time and view how the gorillas are habituated. The adventure is also likely to attract more tourists since you spend time, 4 hours as compared to those interested in doing the two treks. the only difference is that those going for this adventure should expect to be able to visit semi habituated mountain gorillas which can decide to hide, behave in a manner that is not usual and the experience can be stopped upon advice from research.
This is mainly a process were the wild mountain gorillas are trained to get used to the people. Gorilla Habituation also takes between 2 to 3 years to be completed and during this time, the researchers keep on visiting an identified wild gorilla group on daily basis. They also get to learn more about the individual gorillas and the way they behave.
And with time, these mountain gorillas also get used to these researchers and in the long run, each individual gorilla is also given a name. Once the researchers are very sure that these gorillas can be trekked, they then introduce a mock exercise where some few people who may also include; scientists, journalists that start visiting it. Once such a gorilla family has passed mock exercise, then it’s also opened for trekking.
Bwindi forest has about 11 habituated gorilla families that also include; Habinyanja, Mubare,and Rushegura founf in Buhoma sector. Bitakura, Oruzongo and the Kyaguriro found in the Ruhija, Nshonji, Mishaya, Busingye, Bweza, Kahungye found in Rushaga and the Nkuringo group found in the south. At the moment, 8 gorilla permits are available for buying from Uganda Wildlife Authority. 2 gorilla families have been put aside of Bwindi impenetrable National park. This is the reason why the gorilla habituation can only be done in the southern art of the park.