Worthy Travelers

Other than the ordinary gorilla trekking that allows visitors an hour with a habituated gorilla group, Uganda also offers the gorilla habituation experience, which gives visitors an opportunity to spend four hours with a gorilla group still under delicate observation. The habituation experience only happens in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and visitors that have had the chance to take it rate it as more immersive and captivating than the ordinary one-hour with the mountain giants.

Gorilla habituation experiences occur only in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a 321 km2 high-altitude Afromontane forest in southwestern Uganda listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park has steep and high hills and rich biodiversity, including the largest population of mountain gorillas, chimpanzees, a variety of monkeys, birds, duikers, and elephants, all living amidst various species of insects, plants, and micro-organisms.

What is the gorilla habituation?

Gorilla habituation is a process by which humans (primatologists working with their assistants and forest rangers) gradually make peaceful contact with a wild gorilla group in their natural environment until the gorillas regard human visits as harmless to their existence. The process can take about 2-5 years, depending on how the wild gorillas are receptive to human presence.

Mountain gorillas that have not gone through the Habituation Process live far from human settlements. They are shy, will scamper deeper into the thickets when approached, and could be dangerous when startled. Although many unhabituated gorilla groups exist in the mountain forests of Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC, a few have been through the Habituation process and are available for tourism.

44 habituated mountain gorilla groups are available for tourism across Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. Uganda alone has 20 habituated gorilla groups and more than…

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