Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging 
the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up 
with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught 
completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was 
revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group 
and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
Trip Report:
The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda
Trip 1,
October 2012
A less than year old baby smiles mischievously
while a massive silverback surveys his undisputed kingdom.
This trip marked Mary and my 66th through 70th Mountain Gorilla trek in Rwanda -- an absolute Park Record. As you'll see from the accompanying images and my trip report we had a spectacular time, perhaps the most successful shoot we've ever had. Weather can play a key role to a successful trip and for four of our five days we had perfect conditions, and variable but quite good shooting conditions on the other day as well. We have never had so many opportunities for photographing babies, and close up encounters with silverbacks as well. The following is our Trip Report:
Day 1. Because of the Nairobi, Kenya Marathon we left at 7AM for our 11AM flight to Kilgali, requiring us to take some back streets to avoid street closures. After a brief stop in the small neighboring country of Bwindi, we arrived in Kilgali and met our guide. After a rather disappointing lunch we headed out on the three hour drive to the northwest and to our lodge, arriving before dark under threatening skies. By dinner it began to rain and continued to do so throughout the night.
Day 2. Volcanos National Park. Sabyinyo Group
At dawn the eastern sky was clear and we had a sunrise, although, encouragingly, much of the sky was covered by a light cloud cover that we hoped would last through our morning shoot. After a 6AM breakfast we left the lodge at 6:35 for our check-in at the Park HDQ where we met our old friends, the guides and park authorities.
We were assigned the Sabyinyo Group, now composed of the largest silverback, Kahunda, and his nearly-as-large son, and a crazy Blackback that we’ve known for since it was just a two year old, and 9 other members, including several babies.
In the Sabyinyo Group we had a tremendous show with babies and young juveniles, with some climbing and hanging from limbs and others playing on the ground before us.
The Blackback has always been curious and fearless around people, ever since it was a baby and would roll and somersault towards us, to slap a leg or grab a tripod. Two years ago this young male terrorized some of our people on our very first trek as it came charging out of the brush into an open clearing, but that was all in play or bluff. This year, although it rushed towards the group once or twice it was not nearly as threatening.
When we arrived, the Silverback son was sitting out in the open with one of his little step-brothers playing on his back or belly. Over the next ten minutes we were semi-surrounded by other subadults, including Big Ben, a young male that has a completely bald top to his head. The crazy one joined the group, but instead of charging the gorilla lay flat on his back, arms and legs stretched out in a crucifixion pose, but every once in a while the gorilla would turn and roll, all the while getting closer to us each time. Eventually we’d have to move back or the Trackers would give a warning bark to encourage him to move back to a safer distance.
At one point Gahunda arrived and held court, and we were amazed when his son sauntered over, temporarily displacing his father and giving us a chance to see exactly how big his son now is! Ben and another young male sparred, and a little two year-old came inquisitively into the open, standing at one point and beating his chest.
We spent most of the hour without moving from our first location but when the Silverback moved off we followed, and finished up with some nice feeding sequences in the open. The light was semi-cooperative, with some periods of cloudy-bright but a lot of sun, too, which actually worked except for some very high contrast situations. It was an incredible shoot, with babies, young gorillas swinging and hanging from bamboo poles, mothers interacting with young, and great silverback portraits.
As a hike Mary and I gave the trek a 4 and a 5.5 respectively, with 10 being the most difficult, and we gave the shoot a 9 and 9.5 (10 being perfect). We were back to the vehicle by 12:30, and finished lunch by 1:30 to have an hour or so of generator time before we took a well deserved nap!
Day 3. Kuryama Group
The skies were even more overcast and ominous as we awoke this morning, and clouds of varying thicknesses and intensities covered most of the sky as we did our trek. Because we were using the same guide as yesterday, and the other guides complained that he always had easy treks and short hikes, the trade-off was we had a longer hike, but with our guide. We had no idea how long or how steep this hike would be.
Another gorilla group, Susa, is infamous for the hikes involved, as this group is on the higher slopes of one of the volcanoes and a long, steep hike through farm fields is required before even reaching the forest. We may as well have been to Susa today, as our hike through the fields took nearly 1.5 hours and was, essentially, all uphill. It was tough going for a few, although we paused at every level area for rest periods of varying durations. At the stone wall we still had another half hour of trekking, although only the first portion of this was uphill.
The hike, however, was worth it as our route took us through the unusual, mountain-dwelling Lobelia trees, and the graceful, huge, and orchid-laden Hagenia Trees where we’ve always hoped to shoot gorillas amongst its branches. When we arrived at the Kuryama Group there was, indeed, a young gorilla on a limb but it was away from the main group and our second guide directed us away, to where the main troop was bedded down at rest.
One of the little ones found a colorful tree snail which he sucked on like a pacifier, but most spent their time climbing some low branches nearby.
The six or seven gorillas that were there were in nearly perfect conditions, with a resting Silverback, a very curious and playful 10 month old, two females, and a few 4 year olds that came and went. The baby climbed various limbs, sometimes quite close, giving us great action/portrait shots. At one point the baby investigated a colorful tree snail, carrying the gastropod around in its mouth.
Virtually all of our shooting centered on a half-circle around this group where, in the course of the hour, a 4 year old did skin-the-cat gymnastics on a bare limb, a young female groomed and played with the baby, and the silverback sat up and posed. Another silverback made its appearance, with the best shots of it when he peered over some lobelia leaves.
The hike down was a bit taxing on several knees but took less than half the time, and we were treated to spectacular views of the volcanoes, their tops just dusted by veils of clouds, and the sweeping farm terraced fields below. Mary and my cameras were packed, so we missed the most beautiful shot of the day as a woman picked Perithium flowers in a field, with other plots of this white field extending downhill while, in the distance, Sabyinyo volcano loomed in the background.
We didn’t arrive back to the lodge until 2:30PM for a very late lunch. We rated our hike today at around a 9, with 10 the most difficult, and the shoot itself as a 9 or 9.5, as the subject and the lighting – cloudy and shadowless almost the entire time, were excellent. We figure we gained about 1,000 feet in elevation during the climb, starting at over 8,000 feet and probably getting up to about 9,400. Our borrowed GPS lost its power – hence the estimate. By 4 the volcanoes were obscured by heavy rain and, all around us, thunder punctuated the afternoon.
Day 4. Kwitonda Group
I expected a Silverback to walk over me today.
It rained through much of yesterday afternoon and far into the evening, and when we awoke this morning we were half-expecting it to still be raining. It was not, although the sky was covered in ominous dark clouds and, in the east, only a small sliver of open sky let in the dawn. By the time we were at HDQ, however, the clouds had thinned, although all around us there was the threat of rain.
Today we had a much shorter hike, about 37 minutes to the wall that marks the park boundary, and another 30 minutes through relatively flat forest to where we met the gorillas. As we were setting up our gear a young Gorilla climbed a Neobutonia tree nearby, and before we even moved from that location we were photographing the juvenile when it climbed down from the tree.
Although bamboo forests were just above us, the gorillas stayed in the leafy, shrubby country, and with the light overcast from the cloud cover the conditions were ideal. Two Silverbacks own this troop of 20-odd gorillas, and we had multiple opportunities for both. On several occasions a mother with a baby on her back strode past us, and once two females did so, back to back. The females seemed rather protective of their young babies, and one ideal setting, where the mother climbed a tree, was spoiled when she turned her back on the group. Later, she climbed down the trunk and walked directly through our group.
A young gorilla strips park from a tree with both teeth and nails. The wet pulp provided moisture and perhaps a sweet taste, too. The silverback
stripped leaves from some vines, pulling the stem through his lips.
At one point a juvenile gorilla paused in following the group to begin stripping back from a Neobutonia tree. The gorilla would bite at the bark, appearing to be peeling back the bark with its top incisors, and then, using its hands, strip away long sections of the thin bark. Then, using its fingernails the gorilla would run his nails down the now-exposed wood, scraping off then layers of very wet pulp which the gorilla would then sip or eat.
One of the Silverbacks did a dominance-grab at one of our guides, and the gorillas momentum and forward progress continued straight towards me. I tried to step quickly out of his path but the vegetation was thick and I didn’t wish to make to quick a movement, or appear to be fleeing, so I just dropped to my knees and hunkered down, head bent down submissively. This is when I thought the silverback was about to walk over me as it continued to step closer, pausing when it was literally inches from me, shoulder to shoulder. He then stepped a half a body length passed me and sat down, facing away, and I was able to move away.
Later, when we were photographing a family group of a female, big blackback, and a juvenile, another Silverback appeared unexpectedly from the brush and walked by me, so close that as I carefully got up to move I had to be careful not to poke the gorilla’s butt with my monopod!
With multiple views and positions, and several encounters where gorillas moved through our group almost faster than we could move away to give them room, today’s viewing was a 10 and the hike an easy 4, a fairly easy trek. Because of yesterday’s heavy rains a small stream in the farm fields was a raging torrent, requiring us to hop across a small chasm on the way to the gorillas, and teeter across some rocks when the water level dropped somewhat on the way back. We moved as quickly as possible on the return journey as heavy storm clouds enveloped all of the surrounding volcanoes and another black cloud was creeping down the hillside from our shooting site. We reached the car and started home just as the rains began, which then continued through the afternoon.
Day 5. Hirwa Group
Morning again dawned under overcast skies but the rain and fog of last evening was gone. At Park HDQ the weather looked as if it was deteriorating, but the clouds parted and we had a bit of blue as we started the trek. Then, we worried if the weather would clear too much and produce contrasty, unpleasant light.
The trek across the farm fields was relatively short and we reached the stone boundary fence within a half hour, right in the bamboo belt where, in times past, we had our most disappointing shooting. Because of yesterday’s and last night’s rains the trail was wet and muddy, making for slippery going as we moved uphill through the dark bamboo. At one clearing we encountered the troop of habituated Golden Monkeys, about 120 are said to be in the group, and two or three were visible. At first I thought they were going to be as difficult to see as is usual, but one climbed out onto a bamboo stalk to present a very clear view, while behind it two monkeys did prodigious leaps from one bamboo stem to another. We didn’t have our cameras ready, and the monkeys disappeared before we were even tempted and so we moved on, continuing uphill to the gorillas.
After we retrieved our cameras from the porters we were almost immediately in amongst the gorillas where a female lounged before us, posing nicely. Another young gorilla joined her and they began to wrestle, but our guide directed us forward to see the two Twins, now about one and a half years old. We hated to leave but, as usual, he was correct and we were treated to a great show.
One of the two babies was hanging from a bamboo but stopped when we arrived, but then proceeded to clown about in front of us, moving too close at one point. Unexpectedly the baby stood on his hind legs and did a chest-pounding, and I was caught completely by surprised as I cut off most of his head when he reared up and out of view! Fortunately I had a few more chances later, but never face-on or as close.
The lone Silverback in this group, Munyinya, is truly huge, with a massive head. He walked by us once, quite close, and his scent, a mixture reminiscent of human body odor and horse manure, was pungent as he passed. As Tom said, sometimes a silverback looks small as it steps by, but if it rises, or if seen from behind where its huge buttocks and massive, yard-wide shoulders are clearly visible, the animal is huge. This silverback seemed to like attention for twice it grabbed vegetation and then dragged it so that the gorilla could feed within our view.
Several times over the last few days we watched gorillas eat what our guide has called salad as the gorilla alternated bites of bamboo with stripped off leaves of leafy vegetation. The gorilla would take a big bite of bamboo, then grabbed a stem and pulled off a small handful of leaves, pop those in its mouth and follow up with another bite of bamboo. To eat the bamboo, the gorilla would snap off a stem, then peel back the hard outer covering or bite through it, stripping it down until only the softer, sweeter bamboo shoot was revealed. Apparently this has an almost intoxicating effect, with 10 bamboos causing one behavior, and 100 bamboo another – namely almost drunkenness. We were warned at one point that the silverback might act aggressively after finishing up the bamboo but when he moved on, quite close to us, he was the usual well-behaved big ape.
We were called off from the silverback because the twins were seen again, and although we hated to leave the shooting was even better at our new position where the twins and another mother had their babies in the open. Once, while we were photographing the mother with the twins the silverback came down to join us, and promptly bowled over the female, as if in jealousy for the attention.
We ended the morning shoot with the twins and another baby of about the same age wrestling around the twin’s mother. Most of the time the action was merely a black blur, or half-hidden behind the mother, but it was still fun and exciting to watch.
This trek was easy, and we rated its difficult only around a 4, while the shooting, almost all of which was in the open under cloudy-bright skies, with great portraits of all the adults, and portraits and action shots of the baby, had to be a 10. When we returned to the vehicle the forest behind us was already enveloped in clouds, and it began raining by the time we went to lunch.
We learned of two sad instances today as well. Two days ago, a baby in the Agasha group got caught in a poacher’s snare. We believe the snare broke off, but the veterinarian had to be called in to tranquilize the young gorilla to remove the snare. This always upsets the adults, and back in the days of collecting baby gorillas for zoos, entire troops, and certainly all of the silverbacks, would have to be shot to capture one or a few babies. Today, for tranquilizing a baby the danger is still there as a silverback may literally fight to the death to protect its family. Our guide told us that to separate the baby from the adults the rangers and park guards must beat sticks and holler, trying to keep the silverback and mother at bay. They succeeded, but yesterday, one day after this trauma, the silverback was charging the tourist group with such intensity that the tourists never had an encounter. It was simply too dangerous.
Today we learned that another baby, in the Sabyinyo group, was caught in a snare. We were told that the second silverback was leading the troop and, in doing so, led the baby into the snare. Gahunda, the head of this family group, appears to have assigned responsibility for this accident on the second silverback, and punished him severely for the transgression. It will be interesting to hear more of this story!
Day 6. Hirwa Group
It was sprinkling at breakfast and the skies were overcast, and we dreaded that for once on this trip we would be hiking in miserable weather. We planned on returning to the Hirwa group where we had such luck yesterday but this always entails a huge risk as it would be so easy for that luck to turn, and for the gorillas to be in thick cover, especially the nearby bamboo forest belt, or in trees, or in some other disappointing situation.
This was the last trek of this trip and the last six of our permits under the old $500/day permit system. Most tourists are now paying $750/day for the permit, and I believe this shows, as our lodge last night was empty except for us and another American group, and today, at HDQ, there were only a few dozen tourists. Groups were going out in just two’s or three’s, instead of the normal waiting-list crowd we usually see at this time of year.
The weather cleared somewhat while we were at HDQ and for our easy trek back to the gorillas, following the same route we took yesterday. The forest portion was much shorter, and within twelve minutes we were with the gorilla trackers. This did not bode well, as we were still in the thick of the bamboo.
After a short walk we were with the gorillas, and the troop had parked themselves in a large open glade in the bamboo forest where we had a wide-open view. We found the mother and twins first, but after just a minute or so she was off, disappearing in the bamboo. Another juvenile appeared, climbing one of the stalks of bamboo in the same cluster, and soon other gorillas appeared, seemingly from all directions as they stepped passed us and settled in the opening.
The Silverback, who was so attention-hungry yesterday, acted the same today and quickly appeared, striding into the clearing. I had a wonderful view with my wide-angle but I’d just turned it on, and didn’t move the ‘on’ button past the locked position, and so my aperture was frozen. I couldn’t make sense of my manual metering, but I shot anyway and was really annoyed to see my error later, and then seeing what I thought were ruined shots. Fortunately, with RAW the images were retrievable and were, in fact, quite good!
Two of the young juveniles amused themselves by climbing up a thick broken-off tree trunk quite close to me and framed, for nearly everyone, by the forest of bamboo in the background. Later these two spent nearly twenty minutes, and easily half of my 32 gb card, wrestling with each other, or chasing each other, round-and-round, as they circled a bush, pausing at times for another wrestling match.
The Silverback moved close to the broken tree trunk and I maneuvered to get a full body shot, but he kept on coming and ended up looming over me. I had a guide on either side of me telling me to move in their direction – thus in opposite directions, one saying ‘go left’ and the other ‘go right!’ I managed to get a 16mm vertical shot before I slowly stepped to the right, just feet from the gorilla as he stood there. I really did expect for him to push me down and hover over me, but as usual, the silverback was truly a gentle giant.
The trackers found the mother with twins again but the shooting was so good in the glade that I told everyone to wait and I’d check it out. The gorillas were deep in the bamboo, in a narrow opening in gloomy conditions, so I yelled back to stay put. I rejoined the group and a few minutes later so did the mother and twins! They returned to the clearing, both babies riding her back, and the mother settled into an opening an began to feed, while the babies explored everywhere.
Towards the end of the shoot we had virtually the entire group gathered in the clearing, with the silverback now lounging upon his back, being groomed by a female, while another built a day nest high in a bamboo and the juveniles roamed about nearby.
In all, this was probably the most spectacular day of five great days, as we had great silverbacks, a mother nursing, the best wrestling sequences we’ve ever had, the twins playing, and portraits of everyone. We rated the shoot as a perfect 10, and the trek today about a 2, so it doesn’t get any better than that.
We returned to the lodge by 11:30, the earliest return of these five treks, and beat the rain which did resume after we arrived and continued intermittently throughout the afternoon. Mary, Tina, Catherine and Jon, and Carol drove down to the town to buy new Rwanda sandals, returning by 3:30 and with enough time to get some editing accomplished. As I write this at 5 I’m still looking forward (or dreading) editing or reviewing 42 gb of material from today, and making selections from one of the best shoots we’ve ever had. A great trip.
Our Group: Tom, Carol, Jon, Catherine, Joe and Mary,
Alex - our guide, Tina, and Rick
For more images, check out our web gallery of this shoot!
Visit our Trip and Scouting Report Pages for more images and an even better idea of what our trips to the Pantanal are like. There you'll find our archived reports from previous years.
