Eastern Lowland gorilla habituation in Kahuzi Biega National Park Congo

Eastern Lowland gorilla habituation in Kahuzi Biega National Park Congo

Just like the mountain gorillas found in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and Congo’s Virunga National Park, Eastern lowland gorillas in Kahuzi Biega National Park are not so different from them because they come from the same family. The only different between the two is the color and the environment they live in. Mountain gorillas have a typical black fur body and live in mountainous/ hilly areas while the Lowland gorillas have a black and brown fur body and usually live-in lowland areas.

There are only two ways a tourist on a safari Uganda Rwanda Congo can enjoy & interact with these gorillas. Just undertake a gorilla trekking safari Uganda, a gorilla safari Rwanda and a gorilla tour in Congo where you will trek these gorillas together with the park rangers in their natural habitats for about 2-8hours, upon seeing them, you will be restricted to an hour with them, watch them cuddle, play, feed, build their nests and many more. After the one-hour interaction, you will retire form the activity and return to the starting point.

However, gorilla habituation is simply the act of training wild gorillas to become used to the sight of people. Habituating them involves different groups of people like the conservationists, researchers, park rangers, trackers, among others who normally take a period of about 2 to 3 years complete this habituation experience. It is a learning experience that has just recently become a stable activity in these countries with gorillas. During this process, the people get to understand the gorillas deeper and individually, know their behaviors and even get to the point of naming every single one of them. In the end, if the researchers are certain that the wild gorillas are okay with the presence of people, a mock exercise is done as a way of testing to prove their facts. When the gorillas pass this kind of exercise which now includes journalists and scientists, the gorilla group is then available for trekking. The habituation experience restricts the number of people that do this activity per day, thus bookings for this kind of activity must be done 6 months prior to the actual habituation day.

Unlike Gorilla trekking that limits one’s interaction with the gorillas to only an hour, Gorilla Habituation allows interaction with the gorillas for several hours.