12/5/2023 0 Comments Gorilla trekIt wasn’t our proximity to these beautiful creatures-or actually being touched by one-that was most surprising it was the reminder that the mountain gorillas share 98 percent of our DNA. Pounding their chests, making conversation with guttural sounds, climbing effortlessly up the bamboo trees to build a nest-the 60 minutes we were allotted to watch and photograph these graceful animals went by way too quickly. While it was fun to watch the juvenile frolic and play with his brother, it was seeing the adult silverback males in action that moved me. He touched my pant leg-gently fist-bumping my thigh-before squealing and then, like my seven-year-old back home, he made faces at me before doing a series of somersaults down the hill. ![]() A playful young juvenile came up to me to explore. We were told to stay seven meters away-but the gorillas, of course, could do what they want. We stopped in a small clearing so our guide could give us instructions on proper etiquette, a conservation and safety measure for both the gorillas and tourists: While the gorillas are somewhat habituated to tourists, they still need a wide berth. That's why, this past fall, I finally took the opportunity to visit the gorillas of Uganda. They remain critically endangered due to poaching and humans moving in on their territory, and the chance to see them, to understand them, is increasingly rare. In total there are fewer than 900 gorillas in the wild-fewer than the white rhino (20,000), and fewer still than the Bengal tiger (2,500). About 18,000 permits were given out in Uganda last year to see these gentle giants, with about 30,000 permits given in Rwanda. Only three countries in the world are home to mountain gorillas: Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I’ve visited more than 20 times, each trip different than the other, but trekking to see the mountain gorillas in East Africa has always remained just out of reach, a trip back-burnered behind simpler excursions to Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. ![]() Ever since my first trip to Africa-1997, to Cote d’Ivoire-I've been draw back to the continent, again and again.
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