Benefits of Gorilla Trekking in Uganda and Rwanda

Benefits of Gorilla Trekking in Uganda and Rwanda, Trekking with gorillas is a famous thing for tourists to do in East Africa. Every year, people from all over the world go to Uganda, Congo, and Rwanda to see these amazing primates in their native habitats. Other things that people can do in these three countries as tourists are game drives, outdoor walks, bird watching, cultural visits, fishing, and boat tours.

Going on an exciting adventure called “gorilla trekking” means hiking through dense woods in search of gorillas. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Virunga National Park is a great place to see gorillas up close. In Uganda, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are also great places to see gorillas.

Most of the world’s mountain gorillas still live in Uganda, but some tourists choose Rwanda because it’s easier to get to the gorilla parks from there. It costs the most to go gorilla climbing in Rwanda, the third country on the list. The price of a gorilla pass in Rwanda is $1500, which is a lot more than in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Going on a trip with gorillas costs 700 USD in Uganda and 450 USD in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The papers that let you see gorillas in the wild are called gorilla licenses.

Giving money to groups that work to protect gorillas.

To protect mountain gorillas, money is needed, and that money can be raised by going on gorilla tours. A permit, which is part of this funding, is needed for every gorilla trekking safari or gorilla habituation experience. This money is used for many things, like studying gorillas, buying medicines, keeping the park safe, paying ranger guides, fixing things around the park, and more.

Making sure that mountain gorillas can live in the wild.

Mountain gorillas can only stay alive if people understand how important it is to protect these animals that were once in danger. In the 1980s, a count showed that there were about 250 mountain gorillas in the world. They were very close to going extinct as a species. Protecting mountain gorillas, on the other hand, is what they do.

There are now over 1000 of them left in the world. While gorilla hiking, tourists and porters learn why mountain gorillas should get to live another day. Mountain gorillas look scary from a distance, but when you get close to them, you see how gentle they are and how people don’t deserve all the hate they get.

A group of guards gets up early every day to check on the areas where mountain gorillas may have spent the night or are currently spending the day. Ranger guides who go with you on your trip to see mountain gorillas use this information. Other primate species that live in the main jungle depend on mountain gorillas to keep them alive. There are classes on gorilla tourism that help people understand why the animals’ habitats need to be kept safe.

Help the communities that are close to gorilla parks.

Every year, a portion of the money made by tourists visiting gorillas is given to the local community to help pay for things like health care, road repairs, and cleaning for water sources. Because of this, the villagers guard the mountain gorillas, which gives them extra support. In many ways, gorilla trekking has been good for the people who live near the parks. The park’s management has been able to pay scientists like vets and researchers with the money that gorilla tourism brings in.

These scientists are very important because they constantly check the primates for diseases, do gorilla polls, and look for ways to improve their living conditions if needed. This is why there are more mountain gorillas now than there were before. The money from gorilla climbing has helped the governments of the three countries hire Rangers. Their job is to protect the primates from people who want to hurt them or take their habitat, as well as from poachers, invaders, and people who want to cut down trees.

People who go on gorilla treks are also less likely to be poached, who usually kill gorillas for food, valuable body parts, or as pets. This is because there are regular guests who are with park Rangers. This helps the people who live near the parks because gorilla trekking will still be available to them and future generations as long as the monkeys are safe from poachers. Rangers, park guides, and backup police teams not only go gorilla trekking, but they also watch the monkeys move around in the forests to see where they last built their nests so that tourists can see them as soon as possible.

Mountain gorilla climbing has helped other parts of the economy grow and get back on their feet. For example, the roads that connect to gorilla parks have been improved. As more people sign up for gorilla trekking, the money raised is used to improve other tourist spots and activities, like chimp and golden monkey trekking.

People who go to the gorilla parks often go to the nearby villages and take part in traditional activities. You can do things like learn traditional songs and dances, eat traditional African food, and buy traditional African crafts and gifts like mats, caps, stools, and music instruments. Because tourists are always in gorilla parks, the people who live there have a better quality of life because they have more choices.

Tourists can also stay in safari lodges owned by locals in the towns nearby the park. Because of this, local companies have grown, and they’re the ones who make the great hotel amenities. Also, a lot of teens from the area have worked as porters in safari parks and hotels.

More research is being done on mountain gorillas.

Since the work of American primatologist Dian Fossey, a lot of study has been done on mountain gorillas. When Dian Fossey got to Rwanda in 1967, she set up the Karisoke Research Center and did the first in-depth studies of mountain gorillas’ lives there. The main idea behind gorilla tourism came from her study. Since then, more research has been done to learn more about mountain gorillas. People all over the world use this information to learn about the lives of mountain gorillas and other animals that live in forests but aren’t seen.

There is a lot of agreement among people who go gorilla hiking or habituation that seeing mountain gorillas changes their lives. The Gorilla Fund, Gorilla Doctors, and other protection groups, both in the United States and abroad, are working together to learn more about mountain gorillas.

Support the local communities that are close to gorilla parks like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
The world now knows about other things to do in the Bwindi Impenetrable, Volcanoes, and Mgahinga woods besides going on gorilla tours.

First-Time Trekking

You can go on a primate walk in this forest and see many different kinds of primates, like golden monkeys in Mgahinga or Volcanoes National Park, black and white colobus, chimps in Bwindi forest, grey-cheeked mangabeys, red-tailed monkeys, and more.

Mountain climbing: Because of gorilla tourism, it is now possible to take a day trip with a guide to some of the mountains in the Virunga area. In this area, you can find the following mountains: There is Mountain Gahinga, Mountain Sabyinyo, Mountain Muhavura, Mountain Karisimbi, and Mountain Bisoke.

Watching birds

If you go gorilla trekking in Uganda or Rwanda, you might see a lot of birds, including birds that are only found in the Albertine Rift. If you like to watch birds, you might have a better chance of seeing some rare species if you go gorilla trekking or on a habituation tour.

In this area, you can see the Handsome Francolin, the Alpine Chat, the Dusky’s Turtle, the Red-faced Woodland, the Rwenzori Batis Flycatcher, the Collared Apalis, the Banded Prinia, the Mountain and Yellow Steaked Greenbul, and many more birds.

Cultural and community tours.

Local community projects let tourists be a part of people’s lives and show them how people really live. Tourists will sometimes offer to help with local projects that affect the areas where they are visiting.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has Buhoma or Nkuringo Community Walks. On these walks, you might be able to see a local farm, a local brewery making beer, a traditional healer, a blacksmith, and other people. The Batwa pygmies led the hikes along the Batwa Trail and into Garama Cave in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.

They did this after being forced to leave the forest in the early 1990s for environmental reasons. They used this 342-meter-long cave as a safe place to stay after attacking the Bafumbira farms. For the time being, it’s just a background for Batwa shows.

How to Get Your Permits to Gorilla Trekking?

Figure out when you want to go gorilla trekking, which country you want to visit, and how many passes you want to buy. When you ask us a question, our safari expert checks the lists kept by the Uganda Wildlife Authority or the Rwanda Development Board to see what dates are open.

We tell our clients to get their permits as soon as possible if they are still available, because they sell out quickly. Even though there is a huge demand around the world, each family can only get eight gorilla permits.

If you really want to go on the trekking safari, you need to get a gorilla pass. We need specific information from you, like your full name as it appears on your passport, your nationality, your date of birth, the date your passport expires, and a lot more.

How much does it cost to see gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda?

A permit is usually the most expensive part of a gorilla trekking trip. In Rwanda, it costs $1500 per person, and in Uganda, it costs $700 per person per gorilla walk. This cost is the same for all budgets, no matter how high, low, or middle-range they are.

Other things that affect the total cost of the trip are the number of people who go to see gorillas for hiking or to get used to them. The gorilla hike tour can be booked at any time of the year, low or high season. Since service companies charge every day, the number of days spent on a gorilla safari. Gorilla trekking can be mixed with a lot of other things to do, like chimp trekking, wildlife safaris, birdwatching, and very much more.

In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, you can go gorilla trekking.

Over half of the world’s mountain gorillas live in Bwindi Forest, which is Uganda’s largest mountain gorilla area. At the moment, the forest is home to about 19 gorilla families that can be trekked and two more families that can be gotten used to living with gorillas. This biosphere reserve is in the southwest part of Uganda. The plants in this park grow in a very rough landscape with steep, slick slopes and high, cold mountains. This is because the difference in elevation is 1447 meters.

Creating environments that range from lowland forests at 1160 meters to afromontane vegetation at 2600 meters. This forest is a haven for mountain gorillas, chimps, black and white colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, olive baboons, L’Hoest’s monkeys, and other kinds of primates. People who love birds may be able to see more than 100 of the more than 350 different kinds of birds that live in this area. Also, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to about seven bird species that are on the IUCN red list.

In Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, you can go gorilla trekking.

One of the small places where mountain gorillas live is Mgahinga National Park, which is about 33 to 7 square kilometers in size. The Nyakagezi family is the only gorilla family that has been properly tamed and is now ready for guests.

There are three main mountains in the area: Mount Gahinga, Mount Sabyinyo, and Mount Muhavura. You can see the beautiful views of Mgahinga National Park by taking an organized 8-hour walk to the top of any of these mountains and back. Monkeys like the golden monkey, the black and white colobus monkey, the vervet monkey, the grey-cheeked mangabey, and the red-tailed monkey can also be found in the park. Bird watchers will enjoy Mgahinga National Park’s 115 bird species, some of which are unique to the Albertine gap.

In Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, you can go gorilla trekking.

The only place in Rwanda where you can see mountain gorillas is in this area in the northwest of the country. There are now 12 gorilla families in the park that people can see. Other monkeys that live in this park are grey-cheeked mangabeys, red-tailed monkeys, olive baboons, and golden monkeys.

Birdwatchers going on the Rwanda gorilla climbing trip have a four times greater chance of seeing a wide range of species, including species that are only found in the Albertine Rift. It is known to have the Shelley’s Crimson Wing, the Handsome Francolin, the Kivu Ground Thrust, the Alpine Chat, the Malachite Sunbird, the Rwenzori Turaco, and other bird species. It is well worth the trip to the Dian Fossey Grave, which is named for the brave primatologist who fought for mountain gorillas until she died.