Filming Banded Mongoose in Uganda Queen Elizabeth national park- The banded mongoose is one of the smallest carnivores that depend majorly on eating the insects within the soil in addition to eating other animals without backbones or call them invertebrates. Sometimes they supplement their diet with little mammals, birds, reptiles. They have shard teeth adapting them to crash small mammals, and other food items like eggs and invertebrates, and in case, certain food item becomes hard they, the banded mangoes resort top thronging and rolling some hard objects against them.

Still the banded mongoose are characterized by moving in group and they do this in case they see a predator in a bid to scare them away and this process is termed as Bunching and they move closer to the predator, they will also move aggressively and make shout in large voices to scare the predators as well. Commonly, banded mongooses inhabit Savanah, grassland, and forested areas across Africa. The banded mongoose scientifically known as (Mungos mungo) stay permanently in groups of 7 to 40 individual mongoose and at times the groups consist of about fifteen adult mongoose with their young ones or offspring. In Uganda banded mongoose majorly stay in Queen Elizabeth National Park at Mweya peninsular in the Northern sector of the Park.

About mongoose filming in Uganda

Filming Mongoose in Uganda presents an opportunity for filming these unique species. Africa Adventure Vacations organizes the best wildlife safaris as well as wildlife filming to one of the best national parks in Uganda, we have on several occasions given the film crew members advice and organize transport and accommodation services for those who are interested in visiting either of the National park or wildlife places in Uganda. There are 10 National Parks in Uganda and all these national parks offer unique features and biodiversity in terms of wildlife, culture, primates which produce wonderful scenes during filming.

The banded mongoose is found in Queen Elizabeth National Park and therefore this is a place where they can be filmed at ease. Queen Elizabeth National Park is found in the southwestern part of Uganda neighboring the other parts of Kibale forest national park, mountain Rwenzori national park, and Bwindi impenetrable forest national park. Queen Elizabeth national park is ranked as the second-best visited and largest national park after Murchison falls national park. It features savannah, acacia, open water, forest wetland and it provides a lot of wildlife animal species. The park is bounded by various lakes and this makes it a fantastic destination for wildlife safaris. The big 4 animals include lions, leopards, buffaloes, and elephants.

Banded mongoose in Uganda have been fully habituated especially at Mweya, the Northern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, and the habituation process was done by the researchers for the University of the Exeter and this means that after habituation, Mongooses have been reserved for filming, observation, and research and us at Africa Adventure Vacations we shall make sure that you get all that is needed for you to do quality filming by assisting you in processing all the filming required documents and permits such as the lodging facilities where you will stay while filming, processing for you the filming permit, offering you a local film fixer, security, transportation as well as the accommodation facilities or lodges.

Yes, filming banded mongoose in Uganda is best done in Queen Elizabeth National Park at Mweya peninsular found in the northern sector of the park. Mweya peninsular protected over 400 mongooses that are residing within the 12 social groups. The mongoose in Queen Elizabeth National Park is usually seen during the mongoose tracking, and while seeing the Mongoose only 4 people are limited to this activity. As you track mongoose, you will get used to and know the mongoose behaviors, eating habits among other in-testing characters of Mongoose.

What do I need to film Banded Mongoose in Uganda?

There are different documents that that one has to full fill in to make sure that you film Banded Mongoose in Uganda ad one of the requirements in the Filming permit which can only be got from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, you need press cards from the Uganda media council among others. At the point of entry, you will need to declare your belongings in terms of the filming equipment to the customs department for clearance, and then also you will need to get a fixer who will help while you’re in the field filming. Ata Africa adventure Vacations, we shall help you to do all the paper world for all of these requirements once you have contacted us to help you in organizing banded mongoose filming adventure in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

How much do I need to pay for banded mongoose Filming in Uganda?

The time that you will spend while filming the banded mongoose will determine how much you will pay for the filming banded mongoose. After getting all the requirements for filming and clearance to do Banded Mongoose filming in Uganda, you will be required to pay 40 % of the total activity fees per film crew person per entry into the park of you’re going to do commercial wildlife filming for the banded mongoose in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Currently, Uganda wildlife is charged USD40 per person entry into the Queen Elizabeth National Park, and therefore the 40% of USD is USD16 per film crew member and this cost will cover the Banded Mongoose filming fees within the park while on game drives or filming on a boat cruise. You will as well pay the 10% fee put by Uganda Wildlife Authority as the monitoring fees as you’re doing Banded Mongoose Filming. You will also need to cover other additional costs such as;

Media Accreditation fees for filming Banded Mongoose: For you to do banded Mongoose filming you will need to pay USD175 for the media card which is issued to you by the media council. You will need to submit the necessary documentation to the Uganda media council to get this media card and usually it goes monthly and this means that it experts at the end of the month approximately thirty days. Contact Africa Adventure Vacation for more this information.

Customs clearing fees for filming Banded Mongoose: You will also first clear with customs depending on the value and type of the equipment or the kit that you will use for Banded Mongoose filming and this is cleared with the Uganda Revenue Authority that is always at your point of entry and exists. At Africa adventure Vacations, we assist you in clearing this and what is needed s you to provide us with the list of the equipment, value and then type and we shall forward the list to customs who will charge according to but usually they charge ten percent of the total value of the kit and this usually last for about two days.

The Transport and Accommodation fees for filming Banded Mongoose: we usually use cruiser 4×4 vehicle which is hired at around USD200 or the supper customer 4 wheel drive vehicles that are offered at around USD150 per vehicle per day. All this provides once you have booked with us. We also book for you the lodges where you will stay and what you need is to tell us where you need luxury, midrange, or budget lodges. For you can get a budget lodge from USD90-100, Midrange from USD200-300, and then a Luxury lodge from USD300-400 or 500USD per person per night with the full board meal plan.

When is the best time for filming Banded mongooses in Uganda?

As I said the most banded mongoose filming adventures are done in Queen Elizabeth national park at Mweya however, there is also banded mongoose in Murchison falls National Park. Queen Elizabeth National park and Murchison falls National Park where mostly mongoose is located can be visited throughout the year for all those who are interested in Banded mongoose filming activities within these parks. There are two weather seasons in Uganda and these include rainy and wet seasons and we believe and recommend that the dry season should be your best time to do Banded Mongoose filming.

The dry season in Uganda comes in January, February, June, July, August, September, and December the rest of the months rains are common. The reason why you should do Banded Mongoose Filming in Uganda during the dry season is that there are few or no rains for interruptions during filming and the grass are not all that grown-up that would obstruct shooting or filming the elephant. You need to contact us and we provide you with the best advance regarding the best time to film Banded mongoose in Uganda

However, you should not disregard the wet season where there are some rains, the wet season in Uganda is unpredictable. It might rain very early in the morning and then open the sky for the rest of the day or it might also rain for 2 hours or an hour only. The wet season provides beautiful scenes for you to shoot provided that there is greener vegetation that improves the quality of Banded Mongoose filming. You can still do Banded Mongoose filming in the rainy season in Uganda and thus you need to use the 4×4 vehicle to provide you with comfortable travel and table on the road since roads tend to be sleepy during the rainy season.

How to get to Queen Elizabeth National Park for Banded Mongoose Filming?

 You can get to Queen Elizabeth National Park for filming Banded Mongoose through both air and road transport. By air, the banded mongoose filming crew will book a domestic air friend with Aerolink limited from Entebbe international airports or Kajjansi airstrip to Mweya airstrip which is about a 1-hour journey. Then it is here in Mweya where Banded mongoose filming takes place. You can drive from Kampala to Fortportal via Mubende then connect to Kasese and finally to Queen Elizabeth national park for filming Banded Mongoose. You can as well use Kampala, Mbarara Bushenyi Kasese route to access queen Elizabeth national park which is about 398 kilometers.

Where you can stay in Queen Elizabeth National Park when filming Banded Mongoose

Once you arrive at Entebbe international airport, you should spend a night in Kampala or Entebbe international airport so that you can get up and get catchup with the domestic flight to queen Elizabeth National park. Queen Elizabeth national park is surrounded by different accommodation facilities ranging from budget, midrange, and luxury accommodation facilities. There are different budget accommodation options which include Elephant Hab Lodge, Pumba safari lodge where you can pay around 90 to 100 USD per person per night. Middle range accommodation facilities include Bush lodge, buffalo lodge for up to 100 to 200 United States dollars per night per person. Luxury accommodation facilities include Mweya safari Lodge, Katara Lodge, and Kyambura gorge loge and the rooms range from 200 to 400 United States dollars per night.

What can I film in Uganda other than Banded Mongoose?

Uganda is known as the pearl of Africa with interesting wildlife species which you can film in various destinations in Uganda. Currently, there are ten national parks in Uganda and all these parks provide interesting features or animals that you can film in Uganda. Other than mongooses, you can also film the following;

Filming tree-climbing lions in Uganda

Filming African caped buffaloes in Uganda

Filming leopards in Uganda

Filming birds on in Uganda destination

Filming mountain gorillas & chimpanzees among other species.