Originally published 2018-09-27.
One of the most widely shared wildlife videos of the past decade shows an American tourist sitting quietly on a forest path in Uganda while a family of wild mountain gorillas walks right up to him. A young gorilla touches him, examines him and starts grooming his head, while a huge silverback stands close by and finally pulls the youngster away. The encounter took place in December 2011 at a camp in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and the man at the centre of it was wildlife photographer John King.
Below is the story behind the footage, what the silverback's reaction tells us about gorilla behaviour, and why experts say moments like this, however magical, should stay extremely rare.
What happens in the video
The clip begins with King seated on a narrow trail as the gorilla group moves through. Several animals pass close enough to brush against him. A youngster stops, takes hold of his arm, then moves behind him and begins picking through his hair as if he were part of the family.
The silverback, the group's dominant adult male, turns and watches. For a few tense seconds he seems to weigh up the situation. Instead of charging or displaying, he reaches down and tugs the young gorilla away, and the youngster, in very toddler-like fashion, wriggles and protests before the group moves on. King stays still throughout.
The footage was later featured in the documentary series Caught in the Act, which pairs remarkable wildlife clips with commentary from the people who filmed them and from experts who explain the behaviour.
Where it happened: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Bwindi lies in south-western Uganda on the edge of the Albertine Rift. Gazetted as a national park in 1991 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, it covers about 331 square kilometres of steep, densely forested hills between roughly 1,190 and 2,607 metres above sea level. The word "impenetrable" is no exaggeration: the park can only be explored on foot, and trails often climb through thick undergrowth and slippery valleys.
The park is one of only two places on Earth where mountain gorillas live; the other is the Virunga volcanoes shared by Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A 2018 census counted 459 gorillas in the Bwindi area, roughly half of all mountain gorillas. Gorilla tracking for visitors began there in 1993, and every tour group is accompanied by rangers.
The trek and the surprise visit
King was travelling with his friend Jonathan Rossouw, an expedition leader for the travel company Zegrahm Expeditions. Like most visitors, they had to work hard to see gorillas at all. Tracking involves early starts, long hikes through farmland and forest, and no guarantee of a sighting. King summed it up neatly in the documentary: "They make you work for it."
The group spent days in the forest, watching the gorillas eat wild celery, play, nurse their young and rest. Then the gorillas came to them. According to National Geographic, the troop, known as the Rushegura group, wandered into the tented camp. Rossouw spotted them first and raised the alarm, and King hurried outside and sat down on the path the animals were using, knowing that moving away quickly could be riskier than staying low and still.
National Geographic credits Rossouw with filming the encounter; King has also described grabbing a small camera as he rushed out. Either way, the result was footage that travelled around the world within days. King later told the magazine that the gorillas were interacting with him "just like I was one of their own."
Reading the silverback's reaction
Mountain gorilla groups usually contain between five and thirty animals, led by one dominant silverback. He decides where the group travels, settles disputes and protects females and young. Adult males are formidable, weighing roughly 120 to 190 kilograms, and they can be fiercely protective when they sense a threat to infants.
That is what makes the clip so striking. Getting between a large animal and its offspring is one of the surest ways to provoke an attack, yet the silverback chose the mildest possible response. Experts point out that gorillas are generally calm and tolerant, and that their famous chest-beating is mostly display rather than aggression. King's behaviour helped: he stayed seated, avoided sudden movements and did not reach for the young gorilla.
The youngster's curiosity is also typical. Young gorillas spend much of their time playing, exploring and testing their surroundings, and occasionally a baby will approach a person. What surprised the rangers was that adults showed such interest too.
Why experts want encounters like this to stay rare
It is easy to watch the video and wish for the same experience, but conservationists are cautious. Craig Sholley of the African Wildlife Foundation, a former director of the Mountain Gorilla Project in Rwanda, told National Geographic that such contact is potentially dangerous on several levels, and that he worried more for the gorillas than for King.
The biggest concern is disease. Gorillas are closely related to humans and can catch our respiratory infections, which can be deadly for them. That is why tourism rules require visitors to keep at least seven metres (about 23 feet) away and sometimes to wear face masks. When gorillas themselves close the distance, as they did here, visitors have little control, but the right response is to stay calm, keep still and follow the rangers' instructions.
There is also the risk that animals grow too used to people. Gorillas that lose their wariness may start raiding crops or entering villages, which brings them into conflict with local communities.
Mountain gorillas today
Mountain gorillas are listed as Endangered by the IUCN. Decades of protection, ranger patrols and carefully managed tourism have helped numbers recover from just a few hundred individuals; a 2019 census put the total at 1,063. Permit fees from gorilla trekking help fund conservation and provide income for communities around the parks.
A small correction to a popular claim: gorillas are often described as strict herbivores. They eat overwhelmingly plants, mainly leaves, shoots and stems, but they also take tiny amounts of insects, fungi and other foods. Adult males in Bwindi can eat close to 19 kilograms of vegetation a day.
If you go gorilla trekking
- Book a permit through the official wildlife authority or a licensed operator well in advance; numbers are strictly limited.
- Expect a hike of anything from one to several hours on steep, muddy ground.
- Keep the seven-metre distance and listen to your guide at all times.
- If a gorilla approaches, stay calm, keep low and avoid sudden movements or direct staring.
- Do not visit if you have a cold or other infection, and wear a mask when asked.
The Bwindi video is a reminder of how gentle and curious these great apes can be. It is also a reminder that the best encounters are the ones on the gorillas' terms, with people keeping their distance whenever they can.
Sources: National Geographic: Wild Gorillas Groom US Tourist in Uganda; Wikipedia: Mountain gorilla; Wikipedia: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park; videos from YouTube (uploaded by aleutiandream, and the documentary series Caught in the Act).
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