Chances Of Seeing Gorillas in Uganda & Rwanda (99% Chances)

What Makes Chances of Seeing Gorillas High?

Many factors often increase visitors’ chances of seeing gorillas in Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo. They include;

Gorilla family group allocation: How the gorilla families are allocated matters a lot. The park official can assign a gorilla group to a visitor depending on their fitness level. This is especially true with the elderly persons on gorilla tour in Uganda, Rwanda, or Congo.

The young and anyone else fit enough can be allocated to a little challenging gorilla group like Susa ‘A’ in Volcanoes National Park Rwanda. The allocation is done cautiously to ensure that a visitor does complete a gorilla trek. Note, that gorilla trekking in Uganda, Rwanda, or Congo is done once a day – it is a single-day primate trekking adventure.

Talk to your tour operator early: Getting in touch with your local tour operator and sharing more about your fitness level is essential in achieving a successful gorilla trekking adventure. At all costs, a gorilla trek requires you to be fit enough or in a better health state because it is unpredictable.

If you are elderly or have fitness challenges, the tour operator can request early the park official for you to be allocated to a family that is a bit easier to find.

Besides, you can take a step and practice adequately before the actual date of visiting any of the destinations (Uganda, Rwanda, or Congo) for gorilla trekking. Note, that there are also gorilla trekking options for the elderly, as well as persons with disabilities. Talk to your expert to guide you further and book our gorilla trip.

Early preparation: Aside from practicing, packing right is also key. Gorilla trekking is unique in the sense that you entirely spend most of your time in the jungles searching for gorillas (mountain gorillas or Eastern lowland gorillas).

What you pack is completely different, and among other items, you should have waterproof hiking boots, a waterproof daypack, a long-sleeved shirt, gardening gloves, a rain jacket, a sweater, insect repellents, a safari hat, and others.

Gorilla habituation: All gorilla trekking safaris are carried out on gorilla families that have undergone habituation. Gorilla habituation isn’t a one-day activity but takes a process of about 1-2 years less/more to make a family of gorillas used to human presence. This is always done by park trackers before officially opening them to gorilla tourism.

All the 3 key gorilla safari destinations have a good number of habituated gorilla family groups and each is visited by a maximum of 8 (eight) visitors per day. In Uganda, over 25 habituated gorilla groups can be visited today during gorilla trekking, 8 in the Democratic Republic of Congo specifically mountain gorilla families, and 5 groups exist in Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park.

In Rwanda, around 12 habituated gorilla groups live in Volcanoes National Park and all are open for gorilla tourism.

Presence of trackers: As visitors do the verification and later gather for briefing, the park trackers are sent to the forest. They keep in touch with the park ranger guides who inform them of the location of gorilla groups that perhaps the park official allocates to you.

The presence of the park ranger guides in the jungles has made the work of the guides easier and also increased the chances of seeing gorillas not only in Uganda but also in Rwanda and Congo.

Book your gorilla permit early: You can’t go to trek gorillas without a gorilla permit and given the high demand, better if you secure your permit early. You can do this at least 2-5 months before actual date of engaging in a gorilla trekking adventure.

The peak season is usually the period when the demand for gorilla permits rises. This is from June to August and December to February. These are also favorable months of the year for visitors to enjoy a less stressful gorilla trek considering the low or no rainfall with the ground kept drier.

When booking a gorilla permit, take note that each destination has its own set rate. In Uganda, a gorilla tracking permit is issued at USD 800 per person, in Rwanda –the permits are sold at USD 1500 per person and $ 400 for visitors on the Congo gorilla tour.

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