Roger and Pat de la Harpe Photography and Africa Imagery Photo Library

We visited the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda to see if we could find the elusive Mountain Gorillas. And find them we did! Just the most wonderful and profound experience. Our overriding impression, aside from the long, wet, hot climb up the mountains, was just how humanlike these creatures are. On occasion we got extremely close to them (this was not intentional, we tried to keep our distance but they seemed quite happy to come over to us) and when you look into those wonderful amber eyes these seems to be a connection. A recognition...

There are not a lot of them about - it is estimated that there are just under 900 individuals. Their main threat is habitat loss, as the forests where they live are surrounded by rapidly increasing human settlement.

We travelled with Wild Frontiers.

Photo info: Shot on the Nikon D800 and 70 - 200 f2.8 Lens. ISO 400, 1/320 sec at f4.5. - 1 ⅔ exp compensation.