Close Gorilla Encounter | Explorer

That's a monkey. Oh, wonderful! Hey, you can have a chance to see some gorillas! As you can see, gor—are you kidding me? It's gorilla D! Is it fresh? It's for today. We're lucky, huh?

Yeah, you know this. We are approaching the gorilla, so we have to wear our masks. Gorillas are very susceptible to human germs; a simple cold could prove fatal.

[Aon vocalizes to reassure the gorillas he means no harm.]

"Stay there! Stay there! I got one coming down. Look at this beautiful!"

There's roughly 900 mountain gorillas remaining on Earth, and close to half of them live here in Bonga and the adjacent national parks. As I can see, a back—it's a humba family.

This mass—a family of gorillas is typically led by a dominant older male, the Silverback, who gains his silver tinge about 13 years old when he becomes an adult.

They share 98% of our human DNA. Incredible! They're peaceful, gentle, and mainly vegetarian, and clearly, they spend most of their time feeding. The male eats up to 60 lbs of vegetation a day.

To see these incredible creatures in the wild, what a humbling gift! It hits me on a gut level—a sense of responsibility and a clear need to protect them.