Gorillas of Rwanda (Jul 16)

During a trip to Rwanda, we decided to go see the gorillas. To be honest, I was torn on going. On the one hand it'd be cool. On the other hand, I felt there was a legitimate point that acclimating the gorillas to human contact would put them at risk. Oh yeah, and it wasn't cheap. In the end, my guy told me that without these visits and the conservation money they bring, all of these gorillas would have been dead a long time ago.

Rwanda has three groups of gorillas: (1) Wild - these have virtually no human contact (2) Research - they have regular contact with scientists (3) Tourist - these are acclimated to brief contact with humans each day. This third group is the one that our "family" was in.

We visited the Sabyinyo family. The Silverback Guhonda is the older gorilla in the park, 44 years old. There were 3 Silverbacks in the family, but one left to start his own. The #2 Silverback is sticking around because the Alpha is old and won't be in charge for long. The drama!

The family also has Big Ben, who is balding. There is no explanation why. It's just a freak thing. It also had a mother gorilla that was born with a non-functioning left hand.

Anyway, the family tree is towards the end of the gallery if you are interested. I hope you enjoy them.

Oh... another member of our group visited the Golden Monkeys. There are a few iPhone pix at the end from that trek.