With now more than 2,000,000 views on our video Touched by a Wild Mountain Gorilla we are convinced that the worldwants to help protect these creatures. We are therefore very pleased to announce cooperation with the African Wildlife Foundation in support of their mission to raise awareness and $ to protect the earth’s last wild Mountain Gorillas.
The response to posting this video has been overwhelming. Many people around the world have expressed their wonder and support for these beautiful and unique endangered creatures – The Mountain Gorillas. With so many questions we are posting this background to help answer them. Also please take a look at additional images of the gorillas in earlier blog posts on this site.
Background for the video, “Touched by a Wild Mountain Gorilla,” produced by John J King II (youtube channel- aleutiandream)
Video Credits: John J King II , Pam King and Jonathan Rossouw
Music Credit: Apertura, Gustavo Santaolalla, The Motorcycle Dairies
NOTE: Some have asked to experience the encounter as we did without a music bed. That video is here.
ALL Rights Reserved by John J King II, Jonathan Rossouw and The Common Flat Project
Background:
Video was shot in a private safari camp (Gorilla Forest Camp) near the Bwindi National Park in the southwest of Uganda. This is a beautiful preserved section of mountain rainforest nestled into an agricultural area of Uganda, but fiercely protected by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Bwindi is home to roughly half of the world’s population of endangered Mountain Gorillas – roughly 350 individuals.
For the past twenty years, dedicated wildlife enthusiasts have visited this remote part of East Africa for the express purposes of witnessing these magnificent creatures. It is not an easy place to reach – it takes roughly a days’ drive in a four wheel drive vehicle over some pretty challenging roads to get to the village. Access is gained to the forest through a system of permits which are limited but may be purchased through the UWA. Permit holders gather daily after having acquired their permissions, sometimes many months in advance, and are assigned to trek with a local ranger, several trackers and often porters to help carry heavy camera gear (and support the local economy). Standard hiking gear including raingear, lunch and 4 liters of water are required to ensure preparation for a trek that can take any where from 1 – 8 hours to find the gorillas.
Hiking is through rain forest and behind machete-wielding trackers whose job it is to try follow the movements of several troops of wild gorillas that have been habituated to the prescence of humans. This means they are wild, but over a period of years they have been socialized to the visual presence of humans and are no longer afraid; they will not attack or run away when humans are present. This process is very time-consuming and requires amazing patience on the part of local wildlife rangers, as they spend time with these animals daily for months and years in all conditions.
The pay off is huge for thrill seekers like us, because it makes it possible for wildlife junkies to observe Mountain Gorillas in their normal daily lives. There are no guarantees that the gorillas can be located on a given day so trekkers are warned that their $600/day permit may just produce a nice spirited hike in the forest and no gorillas. Rainchecks and do-overs are not permitted. Most trekkers are rewarded however with sightings. Once located, human thrill seekers are permitted exactly one hour with the troop. The experience is magical and the time goes by in a flash! Typically the gorillas ignore the gawking and clicking human visitors who are required to stay approximately 7 meters away.
Very occasionally young gorillas are curious about humans and may approach, but this is very rare. Adult gorilla to human interactions are virtually unheard of among the local rangers! Mountain Gorillas also occur and may be seen in this way in Rwanda (just across the border) and the beginnings of a tourist industry is trying to get under way in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The total population of Wild Mountain Gorillas is about 800. To my knowledge there are no Mountain Gorillas in captivity.
Our experience:
We joined our friend and experienced wildlife guide Jonathan Roussow from Cape Town, South Africa on a two-week expedition through the western remote forests and parks of Uganda, with the primary goal of locating and observing Mountain Gorillas. We allowed three days for this purpose. Our permits allowed us to track two different groups on successive days. Our guides know these gorillas as most of them worked on the original habituation teams that paved the way for this important local economic activity which is critical to protecting forest habitat and the worlds remaining Mountain Gorillas.
We had extraordinary luck on day one and spent a beautiful hour with the Habinyanja group on the edge of a clearing where adult gorillas were eating (they are vegetarians) eating almost exclusively wild celery. The young gorillas were, of course, playing. Fantastic photographic opps! We were in and out of the forest in about 5 hours. Day 2 had us tracking the Rushegura group and trackers took us into a completely different section of the forest. Here we were in a dense canopy and with tracker determination found the troop in a little more than an hour. The group was in a rest period after probably having been feeding all night. We observed up close and personal babies nursing and youth playing in the presence of the silverback that was incredibly heartwarming. So much caring and love among these creatures. We were back to our vehicle, basking in a wildlife encounter high in about 3 ½ hours. Mission accomplished!!
Imagine our surprise and absolute amazement when we woke up the next morning to find that the Rushegura group had traveled for three hours and tracked us!! The rest….you already know.
For more information about the Rushegura Gorilla family group check this link
On a recent visit to East Africa we spent two beautiful days tracking Mountain Gorillas in the Bwindi National Park in southern Uganda. The Bwindi is home to about half of the world’s total population of approximately 750 wild mountain gorillas. Several family units have been habituated to tolerate the brief presence of humans to enable park trackers to to take wildlife enthusiasts into the forest for brief 1 hour encounters. This is an important source of revenue for the local community and encourages the importance of conservation of forest and these amazing and rare creatures. Typical tracking experiences can take between 1 to 8 hours of bushwhacking to locate the troop. There are no guarantees but most trekkers are rewarded with sightings. It can be pretty tough going especially if it is raining which happens frequently. After all it is a rainforest in the mountains on the equator! Our group of 6 plus rangers and local trackers found gorillas in reasonably clear forest, in less than two hours hiking and were allowed 1 hour to watch natural gorilla behavior from distances of about 20 feet away. We were also lucky….see what you think.
Traveling into Kenya in November can have its advantages – less visitors to the various safari camps particularly in the Masai Mara. But also some disadvantages – it is the short rainy season so travel might be impeded due to the wet road conditions. In our experience the pros dominated the cons by a long stretch. We visited friends in the northern central area of the country at the foot of Mt. Kenya in a lovely land holding called the Lewa Conservancy. The property covers more than 50000 acres and is home to more than 350 elephants and over 130 rhinos, both white and black. Not to mention so much other unique African wildlife. Our hosts, Jane and Ian Craig, together with other members of their extended family and now in partnership with The Nature Conservancy have forged a long term plan for the benefit of conserving this incredible land and protecting the unique wildlife which now are again flourishing there.
After the storm
After the Storm
Elephants on the Move
Masai Mara - Cheetah
Mt Kenya foothills
Lioness at Lewa
Crossing the Mara
The Iconic Giraffe
Secretary Bird
Male is nursing some big battle wounds - Masai Mara
Fresh from our mind numbing encounter with Bwindi’s Mountain gorillas our group was still processing all that had happened when our guides and fellow thrill seekers, Jonathan Rossouw and Simon Bellingham of Zegrahm Expeditions (http://www.zeco.com), dropped us into the headwaters of the Nile River. There was a mixture of apprehension and excitement as the local river guides grouped us into boats that should be prepared for maximum excitement (and danger) and those who preferred a less challenging paddle. Like lambs led to the slaughter we eagerly lined up for the wild ride! Holy Crap!! See what you think. Be sure to check out the video below.
Those of you on Cape Cod may have had this experience. Come nose to nose with a Cape Cod coyote who appears to be pretty much unconcerned to meet you and then continues undeterred on its merry way. This beautiful female found me fortunately with camera. Looks way more like wolf to me.
Thought we would share some additional images from this adventure. In particular our time with a pack of Wild Dogs, the most endangered species in Africa was particularly memorable. These critters are actually more closely related to wolves. An up to date description is Painted Wolf. They live in very structured packs of 10 – 25 animals and follow very strict codes of behavior within the pack to ensure survival. The pack we found had 19 dogs, nine of which were “puppies” less than a year old but already pretty much full size as you can see. This pack was also a bit in disarray as the dominant female of the pack (and pack leader ) had disappeared (presumably killed) only days before we found them on the trail. The kudu kill we witnessed was remarkable in its efficiency and especially the ritual of how the kill was divided and devoured by the pack members. By code of conduct the young puppies eat their fill at every meal first! Only after the puppies are satiated will the adults move in to get their share. This is done quite practically to ensure that the pack young survive through their first year to become full fledged members and contribute to the daily hunts. Typically the pack of this size will need to make a kill twice a day.
Botswana afternoon heat
Rest before the hunt
Young male kudu before the attack
Baby impala falls prey to the young pack too.
The first rains of the season fell within a few hours
Zebras watch briefly before bolting, incredible sight...we snuck up on them on the river
Great Egret, south for the summer
Water Buffaloe storm across our path on the river
Coordinates
Hippos !
Close encounter of the elephant kind
The Iconic Giraffe, my personal favorite
Sundown near Selinda Camp
The Linyanti Swamp on the Namibian border
Fastest animal on the planet
Leopard protecting a kill, incredible!
The winner and still King of the territory, this guy was licking his wounds after a galactic struggle
A fight to the death resulted in.....death for this male lion. The carcass was just three days old and already pretty picked over by the vultures.
We recently returned from an epic experience in the Botswana bush in Southern Africa. This part of Africa is dry forest and depends on seasonal rains in neighboring countries (Angola & DRC) to fill the Okavango River delta and nourish the northern reaches of the Kalahari Desert. We were fortunate to make a river journey in canoes down a stretch of the Okavango system that only floods once every thirty years and therefore is very wild. We camped on the side of the river each night. Incredible scenery and exotic African wildlife truly in in its natural habitat.
As most of you are aware we have been fascinated and determined to learn more about the white sharks that returned to Chatham waters, inspiring intensive research on the part of Massachusetts based shark researcher, Dr. Greg Skomal. Since September 2009, when the first confirmed sighting was reported off of Chatham, his work has attracted a great deal of public interest in North America, especially in New England. Those of you who live on Cape Cod know that his lectures are “sell-outs”. Clearly we are all interested in learning more about this charismatic apex predator in our midst. Right?!!!! Well yesterday we had a chance to join his team on the lobster boat Ezduzit for a day in the life of a white shark researcher in the field off of Chatham. As is usual with Greg’s work, we also had a film crew on board, working on, yet another documentary, about the white shark off of Cape Cod. Producer and Director is Trevor Gowdy. If his name is familiar, you may have seen his reality based wildlife sportsmen offerings ( eg Trevor Gowdy’s Monster Fish) on television. He is also the son of legendary television personality Kurt Gowdy.
We were “extra” excited about getting out as we were also hoping to catch a glimpse of the early stages of the southerly sea duck migration which begins to build some momentum in Chatham waters in the middle of October.
We were not disappointed. Lots of “Septober” action.
Sea ducks in flight, mostly common eiders, off Monomoy
White winged scoters
Eiders in flight
Gray seals look on at dead shark on Monomoy in confusion
White Shark Research with Film Crew
A Mola mola surfaces near the boat, these guys can weigh more than 1000 lbs!
Dead Mako Shark on Monomoy. Measured about six feet in length. Cause of death unknown.
Fitting harpoon with a satellite tag
Spotter plane is essential to find sharks in shallow water of Chatham
Our time in the field this fall has taken us into the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge and, as in past years, has provided some wonderful wildlife experiences for us. We are truly blessed to live on Cape Cod. Posting a few more images to highlight our experiences observing the comings and goings of life that is passing through this fall. Be sure and check out earlier posts.
Common terns dance with grace
Peregrine Falcon at the moment of lift off
Pam in the "cross hairs"
Ocean side
Office work
Close encounter of the pollen kind
Harrier hunts
Swallows at the light on Monomoy
Tree Swallows in flight
Tree swallow in all its glory
Egrets heading South
Pair of Northern Harriers struggle over a meal
Young Black Skimmers preening
Crosstown traffic, snowy egret and a ruddy turnstone pass with a purpose, North Monomoy
