For all prospective travelers looking to gorilla trekking in Uganda, gorilla viewing is restricted to one hour. According to Uganda Wildlife Authority, only one hour is given to view gorillas during gorilla trekking exercise and there are reasons as to why this activity is highly regulated. A gorilla trekking safari is the top tourist activity in Uganda followed by chimpanzee trekking, another primate adventure done in selected national parks in Uganda. Gorilla trekking is done in Bwindi impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and the current cost is US$700 per gorilla permit.
Gorilla trekking involves walking in the jungles to look for gorillas in their natural habitats. Track gorillas is one of the life-time even and one hour viewing enable trekkers to chat, take photos or films among others.
Uganda protects half of the world’s remaining Mountain Gorillas. Others are found in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and DRC’s Virunga National Park and both of them are found in Virunga region.
Why only one hour?
It’s a conservation campaign – over staying in the forest not only damages gorilla habitats but also change the behavior of the mountain gorillas. Conservationists advised that the activity must be restricted to one hour so that the gorillas can be left wild!
- Gorillas are wild animals and should not get too familiar to humans thus limiting the time.
- The campaign to control the spread of diseases from primates to human and the reverse is true.
About Gorilla Trekking
Gorilla trekking is a daily activity which is done all year round and therefore a unique experience. The exercise starts early morning at 7:30am with briefing and the actual walk to the gorilla habitat starts at 8am. The time spent with the mountain gorillas is limited to one hour except for the few who opt for the gorilla habituation exercise that is only done in one group within the Rushaga Sector in Southern Bwindi.
The time spent while walking to find gorillas in their natural habitat is unpredictable but ranges between 3-7hrs depending on the movement of the gorillas however, trekkers can spend a full day in the forest while search for gorillas.