“Encounter of a lifetime”: a man on a stretcher finds himself face to face with wild gorillas

It’s a lifelong dream come true. The disabled man can see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat, in Rwanda. While in the forest you sometimes have to walk for hours on small, muddy, slippery and steep paths, Collin could count on his guides to carry him on a stretcher to the primates.

A magical encounter

Cameron Scott, founder of Royal Ngala Safaris, tells this beautiful story on his Instagram account.

“It was a first for me! Our group was looking for the famous Hirwa family, which means ‘luck’ in the local Kinyarwanda language. ‘Lucky’ because this family was blessed with twins who both survived to adulthood. One of our group, Collin, couldn’t climb the mountain and our amazing guides and porters carried him on a stretcher to fulfill his lifelong dream of meeting wild mountain gorillas in the wild”explains.

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Before you continue: “What happened was truly unbelievable as we were surprised by the family of gorillas we were following as they were chased out of their original location by a lone and aggressive male silverback. This led us to pass by in a small clearing without any preparation .” or warning”.

As for Collin, “He was immediately thrown to the ground and ended up having a very rare encounter with one of the twins who was now proud gorilla black back”.

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The gorilla, an endangered animal that relies on ecotourism

Like Gabon, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda relies on its most valuable treasure – the gorillas – to boost tourism (and its economy). The funds raised will in turn help to better protect the species, one of the most endangered.

The western gorilla and eastern gorilla are therefore classified as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List. Therefore, the protection of nature is essential, which mainly consists in the protection of populations of animal species and the preservation of their habitats.

Like many wildlife species, gorillas face habitat loss. Forests are disappearing, they are also subject to poaching and illegal trade, killed for meat or body parts used in traditional medicine or as trophies or amulets.

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But it doesn’t end there. We know that great apes share many similarities with humans, starting with DNA. The gorilla thus shares 98.47% of its DNA with us. As a result, this endangered great ape is particularly susceptible to the same diseases as humans. The Ebola virus has thus decimated a third of gorillas and chimpanzees since the 1990s. According to experts, a common cold could even kill a gorilla.