How to reschedule Bwindi gorilla habituation permits

How to reschedule Bwindi gorilla habituation permits: Bwindi is known worldwide for harboring mountain gorillas and gorilla trekking activities. The national park comprises tropical forests and thick vegetation that acts as a home for mountain gorillas. Bwindi gorilla park has more than a half of the mountain gorilla population and 19 mountain gorilla families have been habituated while 2 are still going through the habituation process but open for tourism purposes.

Gorilla habituation is a unique activity that is done only in Bwindi gorilla park in the whole world. The activity allows travelers to be around mountain gorillas for 4 hours making the members get used to human presence with a help of ranger guides, researchers, and conservationists. The gorilla habituation in Bwindi is done on 2 mountain gorilla families which are Bikingi gorilla family in Rushaga and Bushaho gorilla family in Nkuringo.

How to reschedule Bwindi gorilla habituation permits?

Tourists that had already booked gorilla habituation permits can now reschedule these permits to another future date according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority. There are so many reasons as to why people do reschedule the permits in Bwindi and some of the include sickness, loss of a loved one, important events, and much more. When such issues come up, a traveler must inform Uganda Wildlife Authority if they had bought the permit directly or a local tour operator whom they had booked the permit from.

For Uganda Wildlife Authority to reschedule gorilla permits, you will have to contact the Director of Tourism Business and Development at UWA who will instruct the reservations department to reschedule the permit. The email shouldn’t contain the reason as to why you want to reschedule the permits, previous dates of trekking, and the new dates you want to trek. Once your email has been read through and your request has been approved, your permit shall be rescheduled and no extra cost will be charged.

Had a traveler used African Adventure Vacations or any other local tour company to reschedule permits, they can contact the tour operator through an email asking for a rescheduling of the permits. The email should contain the reasons as to why they want to reschedule the permits, initial dates, and the new dates they want to travel. The local tour operator will contact the Uganda Wildlife Authority which has the right to reschedule the permits and wait for the approval. When the trekking dates have been changed, your tour operator will send you an email to let you know.

Spend four hours with gorillas in Bwindi Gorilla Park

Gorilla habituation experience in Bwindi

The gorilla habituation in Bwindi is only done in the southern sectors of the park which are Nkuringo and Rushaga. The activity starts early in the morning in all the sectors where trekkers wake up for morning breakfast, drivers transfer them to the park offices where they meet other trekkers. Only 4 people are supposed to show up for the briefing where park wardens teach about the rules and regulations of the gorilla habituation activity. Those that have excess luggage hire porters, and armed ranger guides lead the trekkers in the jungle accompanied by conservationists and researchers.

The search for the semi habituated gorilla family can take 2-7 hours but during the search, trekkers are able to meet different park animals such as bush pigs, giant forest hogs, duikers, buffaloes, elephants, otters, jackals, bats, and birds among others. When the gorillas are located, trekkers are allowed to be with them making them get used to human presence, learning about their habits, taking photos, and watch them play, hunt, groom, breastfeed, rest, eat, and much more.

Bwindi Gorilla habituation permit prices

To watch any of these mountain gorilla families going through habituation, you need to have Bwindi gorilla habituation permits. The gorilla habituation permit is got from Uganda Wildlife Authority or through a trusted local tour operator. The permits are bought at $1500 for foreign non-residents, $1000 for foreign residents, and UGX750,000 citizens of East Africa. These permits are sold to persons above the age of 15 years and the permit allows people to be around the mountain gorillas for 4 hours.

Best time to habituate gorillas

The dry season is the best time to do mountain gorilla habituation in Bwindi and this occurs from June to September and December to February. During this time, there is little or no rainfall which makes the trekking trails dry, the vegetation is short and thin with good views of the gorillas, and the roads leading to the park are in good condition.

The rainy season can also be used to habituate mountain gorillas in Bwindi and this favors the budget travelers because there are huge discounts on accommodation facilities. The rainy season occurs from March to May and October to November and travelers should not that during such months, the trekking trails are muddy and slippery, the vegetation is tall and thick with good views of the mountain gorillas, and the roads leading to the park are in poor conditions.