What are the chances of seeing Mountain Gorillas in Uganda? – Uganda Safari News

Sharing time with mountain gorillas in the wild in Africa’s rain-forests on your Africa safari is extremely magical. A Uganda gorilla safari of a package like a 3 days Uganda gorilla trekking safari, a 5 Days Uganda gorilla & wildlife safari or a 9 Days Uganda gorilla, chimps & wildlife safari tour prepares you to enjoy an encounter with the majestic apes. As part of your adventure, you will enjoy their beauty and muscularity, their soulful brown eyes, their amazingly human-like expressions or their extraordinarily gentle conduct. This special interaction with these human-like apes normally lasts just one precious hour, however, Uganda offers extended experience in an exciting evolution known as a Uganda gorilla habituation safari.

Prime Safaris & Tours Ltd tailors Uganda gorilla tours for travellers that have expressed their interests in enjoying a safari in Uganda. In addition, it interacts with its clients to collect their views of what transpired during their Uganda safari, short Uganda wildlife safari, Jinja city tour, Kampala city tour, Uganda chimpanzee trekking safari, Uganda wildlife tour, or anything depending on what they booked with us.

Commonly Asked Questions About Gorilla Safaris in Uganda 

  1. What are the Chances of Seeing Mountain Gorillas in Uganda?

This is one of the popularly asked questions by tourists planning to undertake gorilla trekking tours in Uganda. The fact is that no Uganda gorilla safari tour operator will assure a traveller a 100% chance of seeing Mountain Gorillas because these are wild animals. However, the chances of tracking mountain gorillas and interacting with them are about 99% assured due to the fact that the gorillas are known to live in specific places and conserved. Ever since Uganda gorilla tours started in the early 1990s, there no travellers who have failed to see mountain gorillas on their safari in Uganda. Mountain gorillas are ever on the move and their movements cannot be controlled but travellers are assured of seeing the mountain gorillas. If the gorillas are always on the move, how then are trackers able to see them? The park management of both Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park where mountain gorillas are found have very well-coordinated management is this is what is done to ensure every gorilla trekking tourist see Mountain Gorillas.

  • Early Mountain Gorilla Search by Park Rangers

Every day, before tourists start their gorilla trekking safari in Uganda experience, an advanced team of rangers sets off into the forest to find where the gorillas are. They normally start from where the gorillas slept last night following their footsteps until they find them. Rangers do this tGorilla Safario make it easier for tourists to find them. Gorillas are always on the move as they are searching for food or water. Sometimes, if there is a fight between habituated and non-habituated gorillas, they will tend to move far and sometimes become hostile. The work of this advanced team is to establish the state in which these gorillas will be and then, they will communicate to the Park Head Quarters to tell them where the gorillas are. Tracking is therefore taken to where the gorillas are making chances of seeing gorillas approximately 99%.

  • Gorilla Family Allocation According to Physical Ability

Gorillas live on a high altitude however, not all of them are in the same point, some might reside at a lower altitude whereas others on a high altitude. Trekkers are urged to disclose their physical fitness levels to the park rangers during the time of family allocation. This will help park rangers to allocate a family according to the information given by the trackers offering either a short, medium or tough hike. Physically unfit trackers and the aged are in most cases allocated gorilla families that are easy to find. This makes easy for every trekker to see mountain gorillas considerably.

  • Early Booking for Uganda Gorilla Trekking Permits

It’s always advisable to book your gorilla trekking permit early since it offers a chance to choose the sector to trek. Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is the popular gorilla trekking tour Uganda destination with mountain gorillas found in the four sectors of the park (Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga and Nkuringo). The purchase of a Uganda gorilla trekking permit is dependent on the availability of the permit in a specific sector. Early booking of a gorilla trekking permits helps ensure that each tourist has a gorilla family to trek. This is far different from many of the Uganda safari activities especially wildlife safaris in Uganda where by you undertake the activity without booking early enough.

Mountain gorillas are rare and an endangered species but thanks to conservation efforts, trekking is possible on Rwanda gorilla safaris and Congo gorilla trekking safaris. On a gorilla safari in Rwanda or gorilla tour in Congo, always remember to book early for your safari since the chances of seeing the Mountain gorillas is high. Mountain gorilla trekking whether on a Uganda tour, Congo safari or Rwanda tour is expensive but then in all times, you are assured of having a lifetime experience with these rare species.

2. How Long is the Gorilla Trek?

Don’t be worried! The trek depends on the gorilla family you are trekking however, the actual trek before getting to the gorillas is about 4 hours. The standard time we estimate for this activity is between 2-8 hours. This Uganda gorilla safari tour journey starts at around 9 am after a briefing from the park rangers. Some areas of the forest have properly cleared out pathways however other areas are thick so the rangers help travelers clear the way using a machete.

3. How Many People Trek/Track a Gorilla Group/Family?

During your briefing, park rangers will emphasize the number of people that are supposed to track a gorilla family which is 8. If you happen to travel with a big number of pf people, you are split to fit the available groups. Each group is accompanied by a ranger guide and some few porters for those that have language.

4. How do you get to See your allocated Mountain Gorillas Family?

Normally, the park rangers have a scheme of locating the various gorilla groups before the trekking time so tourists don’t miss out on seeing the gorillas. Rangers walk into the forest to locate the gorilla families and after they make a radio call to the rangers with visitors to give them directions. Gorillas just move half a kilometer each day so because they don’t go very far, it is easier to locate them starting from their previous location of the day.

5. Is There a Special Feeling You Get After Seeing The Mountain Gorillas?

Because seeing gorillas is a special and a very amazing experience that many have not done in their entire life, the experience itself is a dream come true and the gorillas are all real. Many have only seen the documentation of these wonderful apes. The experience itself gets real for you get very close to these giants at some point you may be tempted to touch one. One of our clients stated “It was hard to believe how their movements were really human-like, they nature kids just like us! It’s very awesome and probably it’s the best thing I have seen on this safari Uganda“.

6. How Long Did you Watch the Gorillas?

You are only permitted to observe the gorillas for 1 hour however you also have a choice of spending with them the entire day! The park just accepts a single group of people to see a gorilla family each day. Those interested in habituation, spend the entire day with the gorillas which is absolutely a better experience.

7. Anything Expected During the Encounter?

Anything can happen! It may rain on your day of tracking and gorillas are inactive in the rain!

Mgahinga offers a Prime Gorilla Trekking experience - Uganda Safari NewsRead About Our Clients’ gorilla trekking safari experience in the Rainy Season…

They sit a lot beneath the tree shed to shelter themselves from the rain. As we watched them shelter under the trees, we heard this grating in the branches just above us. Then sudden a giant silverback came down on one of the trees in front of us, knocking me off-balance into another tracker! If I had not fallen backwards, I think he would have hit me! he then stood in front of us and hit his chest implying that he is the boss here.

We also observed a mother gorilla that had folded her hands sitting beneath tree branches. She simply stared at us however didn’t appear to care about our presence. After slightly shifted her arms and later we discovered that she was protecting her baby against the rain. There is no way we could have even imagined that she had a baby with her. Later when the silverback moved on and the rest of us were all astonished so we just followed them.

The second day was clear, it didn’t rain. As we walked through the forest we came across a family with nearly fifteen gorillas. The majority of the gorillas were eating. We watched them lower their mouths to pull up the roots to feed on. The mothers were seated carrying their babies. The youths (juveniles) were feeding and playing about while the huge silverback simply sat and folded his arms as he observed everyone.

Gorillas were quite funny. As our one hour with the mountain gorillas was coming to an end, the silverback raised up and began walking in our direction. At that moment we were able to observe its huge size. He sat just in front of us, as though he was posing for pictures, and looked at us. Certainly, many of us were still in shock while others were busy taking pictures with their cameras. After about 3 minutes of taking pictures, he rose again and walked off. Unhurriedly the rest of the gorillas followed him. As well trekked back to the starting point, another gorilla’s family walked past us and did not seem bothered at all by our presence. I was amazed to see these other giants that bypassed us. The experience will last forever in my memory! surprisingly we were strong! We didn’t believe any of us had that feeling, apart from when the huge silverback swung down from the tree. I feel part of that came from the calm conduct of our forest ranger guides so that helped to keep us all calm and relaxed.

Is it Truly an Amazing Experience?

Yes! I truly agree and encourage everyone to take this amazing adventure

Advice for Those Planning to Trek the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda

Pack well for your gorilla tour in Uganda. Pack rain gears, even if it appears to be sunny and the skies clear, you should have these on you since it rains at whatever time here. My rain jacket saved me that day. Although it doesn’t rain, the forest is pretty wet. My rain pants helped me to sit and even kneel on the damp ground to have a closer view of them.

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