Skip to content
Contact
Contact

Experience

Gorilla Habituation

Four hours with a gorilla family that is still getting used to people, in Bwindi's southern sector, with a research team rather than a tourist group. Permits are far scarcer than the standard trek's.

At a glanceOn land
How longFour hours, one dayFour hours with the family; a full day out
How hardDemandingLonger and rougher than the standard trek: steep, wet, off-path
SeasonYear-roundThe drier spells are easier underfoot

The standard trek gives you an hour with a family that has long since decided people are furniture. Habituation gives you four, with a family that has not decided yet.

You go in with the trackers and researchers who do the work, the same slow, daily business of sitting near a family until proximity stops being an event. The forest is Bwindi’s southern sector, further from the usual trailheads and quieter for it, and the walking is longer and rougher than a standard trek because a part-habituated family moves off more often.

Four hours is long enough for the family to stop performing and go back to eating. That is the difference people come back talking about, and it is why the permits are the hardest part of the trip to secure.

Good to know

  • Only a handful of habituation permits are issued per day, far fewer than for the standard trek. Dates go early and we pin the permit down before anything else.
  • The wildlife authority sets the permit price and the health rules, and both have changed before. We confirm current terms in writing with your permit.
  • It is a full day, not a morning, so expect an early briefing and a late return, and plan the lodge around the sector your permit names.
  • Hire a porter. They cost little, they carry your pack on the steep sections, and the money stays in the villages at the forest edge.

Habituation permit price, the number issued per day, the minimum age and the current health rules are all set by the Ugandan wildlife authority and change without notice. We confirm what applies to your dates in writing before you pay anything.

Four hours is long enough for the family to stop performing and go back to eating.

Where to do it

Where we arrange gorilla habituation

Start from the destination, and we will build the days around this.

Or browse every itinerary andthe rest of the experiences.

Questions we are actually asked

How is this different from the standard trek?
The standard trek gives you one hour with a family that is fully used to visitors. Habituation puts you with a family still being brought round to human presence, alongside the researchers and trackers doing that work, for roughly four hours. The group is smaller and the day is longer.
Where does it happen?
Bwindi's southern sector, which is a longer journey than the northern trailheads and quieter when you get there. Which sector you sleep near matters more than usual here, because the briefing is early and the day is long. We build the itinerary around the permit's sector.
Why are the permits harder to get?
Far fewer are issued than for the standard trek, because only a family in the middle of habituation can host one and only a handful of people go in per day. Dates go early and there is no waiting list worth relying on. The permit is the first thing we pin down.
What does a habituation permit cost?
The wildlife authority sets the price and has moved it before, and it sits above the standard trekking permit. We quote the current figure in writing when we secure the permit rather than publishing a number that goes stale.
Will the gorillas be as relaxed?
Less so, and that is the point of the exercise. A family part-way through habituation keeps more distance and moves off more readily, so you follow rather than sit. Sightings are never promised, since trackers find the family before you set out, but it is wild forest.

Keep reading

Where to go next

Each of these answers one of the questions this page opens.

Ask us about gorilla habituation

Dates and how many of you is enough to start. We reply within one working day.

Plan your journey

Tell us a little; we’ll do the rest. One of our travel designers replies within one working day.

When would you like to travel? (a rough month is fine)

“Honeymoon in September, two of us, bush then beach…” A sentence is plenty.

We’ll only use your details to reply to you. See our Privacy Policy.

Back to topChat on WhatsApp

Resident hotel ratesContracted KSh rates, filtered by region, month and boardCan’t find it? Just ask.Flights, stays anywhere, groups, cruises: tell us what you’re after and we’ll price it.