How Much Does Gorilla Trekking Cost?

Ugan­da is one of the world’s desir­able des­ti­na­tions for goril­la trekking. Goril­la trekking includes walk­ing into the jun­gle in order to locate the moun­tain goril­las. The activ­i­ty can go on for hours depend­ing on the loca­tion of the moun­tain goril­la fam­i­ly. Goril­la trekking is a mem­o­rable activ­i­ty and tourists can from all-over the world in order to view these rare primates.

Moun­tain goril­las can be trekked in only two nation­al parks i.e. Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble and Mgahin­ga Nation­al Parks. Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park is the first major des­ti­na­tion for the activ­i­ty due to the tremen­dous pop­u­la­tion of the moun­tain goril­las. The moun­tain goril­la con­ser­va­tion area of South West­ern Ugan­da in which the moun­tain goril­las are sit­u­at­ed is known as Virun­ga region. Oth­er coun­tries that make up the Virun­ga region are Rwan­da and Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Con­go. As a mat­ter of fact, moun­tain goril­la trekking is only pos­si­ble in the Virun­ga region glob­al­ly. The rea­son is sim­ply because the moun­tain goril­las are only sit­u­at­ed in Cen­tral Africa.

About moun­tain gorillas.

Moun­tain goril­las as strange but awe­some crea­tures with much like­ness with humans. While the chim­panzees have the clos­est DNA sim­i­lar­i­ty to that of humans, moun­tain goril­las can be safe­ly list­ed among the pri­mate species with equal­ly near sim­i­lar­i­ty too. The moun­tain goril­las are strong pri­mates and grow to unimag­in­able body mass.

They live in the Virun­ga rain­forests among the Virun­ga vol­ca­noes. The vol­ca­noes in the region have fer­tile vol­canic soils on their slopes that have enabled the prop­er growth of the rain­forests and the alpine veg­e­ta­tion on which the moun­tain goril­las breed and feed. Moun­tain goril­las live in nests formed with­in the bam­boo veg­e­ta­tion and have a fam­i­ly expe­ri­ence with an adult male goril­la as a leader known as a “Sil­ver­back.” The sil­ver­back pro­tects the fam­i­ly and ensures exten­sion of the fam­i­ly line through repro­duc­tion. Moun­tain goril­las are social apes espe­cial­ly with now the inten­si­fied moun­tain goril­la research activ­i­ties such as moun­tain goril­la habit­u­a­tion. There­fore, tourists get clos­er access to the apes in the wilder­ness since they are regard­ed as more human friend­ly after the habit­u­a­tion. The moun­tain goril­las in the Virun­ga have had some tough times sur­viv­ing, due to wars, poach­ing, and encroach­ment on their habi­tats. How­ev­er, the Ugan­da gov­ern­ment under the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty has for a long time con­served the moun­tain goril­las and their habi­tats with sup­port of the Nation­al Forestry Authority.

·       Where moun­tain goril­la trekking is done in Uganda.

There are only two loca­tions for the moun­tain goril­la trekking in Ugan­da. Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park is the major des­ti­na­tion for the moun­tain goril­la trekking because it has the high­est num­ber of the pri­mates. Mgahin­ga Nation­al Park is the sec­ond des­ti­na­tion for the moun­tain goril­la trekking. Both des­ti­na­tions are sit­u­at­ed in South West­ern Ugan­da. The two nation­al parks have a great land cov­er­age of the rain­forests and extinct vol­ca­noes which have been impor­tant aspects for the sur­vival of the moun­tain gorillas.

·       Cost of goril­la permits.

Moun­tain goril­la trekking in Ugan­da is sim­ply one of the most afford­able for tourists who come to Africa for the activ­i­ty, com­pared to Rwan­da. In order for a tourist to trek the moun­tain goril­las, they are required to have a moun­tain goril­la permit.

The per­mits are acces­si­ble at the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty and come at a fee which depends on the sta­tus of the tourist i.e. EAC res­i­dent, for­eign res­i­dent, or non-for­eign res­i­dent. The EAC res­i­dents pay 250,000/= UGX each, for­eign res­i­dents pay $600 each, while the non-for­eign res­i­dents pay $700 each. Book­ing of the per­mits is rec­om­mend­ed to be done at the ear­li­est due to the high com­pe­ti­tion for the per­mits dur­ing the peak season.