Posts Tagged ‘eco-tourism’

Congo: Gorilla Videos!

July 30th, 2010

Here is some video evidence that I did, indeed, hang out in close proximity to Congolese mountain gorillas. Much of the video clips show them playing with each other: running, chasing, swatting, rolling around, wrestling.

According to the BBC News, gorillas play games of tag like humans … and that looks like what we’re seeing here:

Here are some of the younger gorillas. The littlest one kept coming right up to us, so close that the gorilla guide had to keep shooing him back:

Here are some of the young gorillas hanging out, and toward the end the silverback comes charging through … just to keep the young’uns in line (and also to show the visitors who’s boss).

And here is the silverback a bit later, high up in a tall tree, foraging for fruit (and tearing the hell out of some big, thick branches at the same time). He looked like King Kong!

Here is some info about how to get involved in saving the Congo’s endangered mountain gorillas — either to go gorilla trekking yourself, or make a donation.

~ peace, love, and giant apes ~

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Posted in Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Viddy Oh!

Tags: africa Congo eco-tourism fun fun fun gorilla trekking nature! video

Congo: Gorillas!

July 27th, 2010

Here are some photos taken while gorilla trekking in the Democratic Republic of Congo, July 2010.

I went on this expedition with the rangers of the Virunga National Park. Here is my blog entry for this day, “Close Encounters with Mountain Gorillas.” Here are video clips I took while gorilla trekking.

For permission to reprint images without watermark, please contact me at eileenploh@gmail.com.

Thanks and enjoy!

: Serena, Dani and I went gorilla tracking with 3 guides, all rangers of the Virunga National Park in the Congo. We started out walking along this really lovely mountain steppe …

: … then entered the dense and unforgiving mountain jungle.

: A shot of my fellow trekkers, including the ranger in back (who is fully over our picture-taking). I didn’t take many snaps along the hike, because it was brutal, and I was more focused on moving forward and keeping my lungs from exploding.

: After several hours we came upon this large family of gorillas, and these were the first ones we saw. At this time we were standing in an absolute downpour and it’s hard to see …

: … but the gorilla in front is holding a baby.

: This one came galloping over to us, and as much as I’d like to blame the weather or my wet camera for the blurriness of the photo, it’s most likely because my hands were shaking.

: O HAI!

: Watching them just hanging out, doing their everyday thing in the jungle was fascinating.

: A lot more gorillas showed up, checking out the visitors. Our guide Norbert told us they wanted to play with us.

: But we declined, so instead they played with each other.

: Gorilla playing includes running, tumbling, swatting, chasing and swinging on vines.

: There are only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the world

: … so it was really an extreme privilege to be able to see them in their natural habitat, doing what they do.

: Cheeky monkey!

: The Mack Daddy of all time: the silverback.

: Silverback in a tree. He looked like King Kong.

: They look really fierce, but the gorilla guides assured us they are gentle. Still a bit scary being up close to them, on their turf.

: They were high up in trees, tearing thick branches off like they were made out of balsa wood, looking for fruit.

: This guy’s weight took down a big tree near me (and he fell pretty far), and I was afraid he was hurt. But he popped up off the ground and got on this log …

: … and saw me, and started climbing up the log toward me. Again, wish this picture weren’t so blurry, and again, it was probably a shaky-hands situation more than anything.