by Rowena Edwards
I was lucky enough to go to Uganda and visit the most amazing creatures on earth… the Mountain Gorillas. I have worked as a Zoo Keeper with Western Lowland Gorillas and seeing them in their natural habitat was the most amazing experience of my life. Whether killed through wars, the bush meat trade, or just for trophies, it’s not surprising that there are not many of these giants left, and I am really glad that the communities and the world are now starting to realise how important these animals are, and are finally starting to look after them.
It was an expensive trip: the permit alone was US $500 and only 8 people are permitted to go and see each troop per day, and for just one hour at a time. But it was well worth it!
I was lucky enough to see the Nshongi troop in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. As we arrived we heard chimps in the trees, it was a great start! We signed in, had our briefing and started our 90 minute trek up and down mountains and through the rivers before we found the troop of 31 gorillas.
At that time, this troop had only been receiving visitors for three months and had three silverbacks, which was interesting as usually there is only one. I stood in shock as one of the silverbacks was standing less than three metres away from me. just relaxing and eating some leaves. As we walked slowly through the bushes, our guide cutting us a path, we heard noises all around us, and trees shaking as baby gorillas played in them. It was amazing seeing them swinging in the trees as I didn’t realise gorillas could climb!
As we walked on, the sound of chest-beating started and one of the other silverbacks ran through our group and brushed past my friend’s arm! He then sat about 4 meters in front of us and started eating again. It was just truly amazing how close we were allowed to get to them, and to see them in the wild rather than through the bars at the zoo was incredible.
The guides were brilliant, making grunts and communicating with the gorillas, and there were also scientists there, recording their behaviours. Seeing the gorillas doing “gorilla things” made me one very happy girl!
Our allocated hour passed very quickly and our time hanging out with the troop was over but we still had another 90 minute hike back to the start. We had some unplanned excitement in the last half hour when we saw a couple of bull elephants about 600 metres away from us. The guy with the gun told us to “Run! Run!” (When a guy with a gun is scared, that certainly gets the adrenaline pumping!) Elephants had not been seen in that part of the forest in a very long time so we were pretty lucky!
It was a very exciting and emotional visit and I feel honoured to have been a part of the Nshongi troop.
The Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei, subspecies beringei )
is on the IUCN Red List for Threatened Species as ”critically endangered“
Population trend: unknown
ABOUT OUR GUEST BLOGGER ROWENA EDWARDS:
Rowena feeding a White Rhino calf
- born and raised in New Zealand
- has also lived, worked and travelled extensively in Europe & Africa
- wanted to be a vet since she was 5
- has worked as a zookeeper and more recently as a dog trainer
- wants people to get inspired and excited about animals
- her conservation heroes are Sir David Attenborough and Steve Irwin
- would sell her soul for chocolate chilli pudding….
All photographs are by Rowena Edwards, and are used here with her permission
