5 Hours with Wild Mountain Gorillas (World's Best Wildlife Encounter?)

So Uganda is home to over half of the world's wild mountain gorillas and over the next few days we are going to be hiking deep into the impenetrable forest, that's actually what they call it here, to hopefully get up close and personal with the world's largest primate. Just trekking through the jungle with guys with guns. Hopefully it goes something like this video we saw online and not like this one. But that's what makes wildlife experiences so exciting, you never know what's going to happen. But we're going to be working our way up to the gorilla experience. Phase one of this experience is going to be heading to Chibali National Park to meet the chimps. Then we'll be doing the classic gorilla trek where we get to spend one hour with the mountain gorillas and finally we're taking part in what they call a, ow that was a thorn, a gorilla habituation trek. This is where we head deep into the forest like we are now to a group of wild mountain gorillas who aren't used to seeing humans. I think this is where some of the most unique encounters are going to come from. That was without a doubt the scariest moment of my entire life. This is an experience that you probably haven't seen anywhere else. That silverback has never seen humans. So join us as we begin an adventure that's been on our bucket list for over 10 years. All right here we go. To start this trip we flew into Kigali, the beautiful capital of Rwanda, our 108th country. We got picked up by our new friend Godfrey, he's the man and he'll be driving us around and taking care of us this week. Beginning with an eight hour drive to Chibali National Park. I personally love road trips, especially when there's a lot to see out the window, which there was. We drove past this giant tea plantation, gorgeous. So many people transporting heavy stuff on bikes and these guys hitching a free ride behind a dump truck. I don't blame them on these hills. Two hours into the drive we stopped to cross the border into Uganda. Land border crossings can get a little interesting sometimes. First they asked us to stop and wash our hands and apparently we weren't supposed to film up. And we were officially in our 109th country. Our route just happens to go through Queen Elizabeth National Park where we casually saw some elephants from the road. Yes, roadside elephants. We're not even on a safari. All I've been thinking about are chimps and gorillas. I was not emotionally prepared to see an elephant on this trip. Next we officially crossed the equator into the northern hemisphere. Then we were almost at our home for the night when we happened upon a troop of baboons. How cute. Look at those babies. That's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life. They're so tiny. Oh, did you see that one? She picked up both of them. Yeah. Just casually crossing the street with their babies. That was by far the highlight of the day. And finally, 10 hours later. Cheers. We made it. Cheers Godfrey. This is where we're staying. Home sweet home. I think you might have a sore neck after that one. Check out this view. Massive deck. We have to get up really early tomorrow so after a quick dinner, we called it a day. Or at least that was the plan. Alright. I'm gonna catch it with the cup. I'm gonna slide the daily drop sticker between the cup and then we're gonna throw it outside. It might not quite fit. That guy is hanging out. Oh my gosh. I actually think I'm gonna puke. If this thing falls on my head or jumps at me, please don't jump. I'm scared. I don't think we can do it. How about the trash can? Nate, this is a terrible idea. But here's the deal. I wanted to just leave it alone. But the rest of the trip I'm gonna be wondering if this thing is in my suitcase. If I don't get it out of here. Please don't jump. Oh! Where'd it go? It's behind the curtain right here. Oh, where'd it go? Oh, crap. Oh, I think I see it. Where? I think it's up in the corner. Yeah, there it is. Can we hold the light? Do you think it's poisonous? Probably. Should I do it? I don't know. I don't think I'm brave enough. My whole body is itching. I'm gonna protect myself with the trash can. Is it secured? I don't know. I think it's in there. Here. Oh, please don't run on me. Uh-huh. Is it in there? I can't see. Is it in the cup? Please be in the cup. I don't know. Oh, yeah, there it is. You're so brave. Oh, that's inflexible. You can do it. Nice. Oh, where'd it go? It's not in there anymore. Shut up. Where did it go? You're joking. I'm kidding. Oh, my gosh, Nate. Shine the flashlight so we can see if it goes. What? You're not gonna go out there further? It's gonna come out. Oh, my gosh. Ready? Three, two, one. I heard it. Oh, it's still in there. How about that just dates? Is it on me? I don't see it. Now, how are we gonna go to sleep? Nice work. Thanks. You're so brave. Oh, my goodness. I'm so happy I'm not you. Hopefully, that was the same one. I'm just kidding. Okay. See you in the morning. Good night. Good morning. The sun is just starting to rise. We had a quick coffee before we left. Now, we are on our way to the national park to see the first of the great apes, the chubs. All right. We have just entered Cavale National Park, and this is the primate capital of the world. All right. See you soon. Here we go. Oh, my gosh. And it is just the six of us heading into the forest today. We have our guide, William. We have two guards behind us with big guns who are here to protect us in case we come across any forest elephants, which would be epic, and a porter to carry the backpack. Told us that was a good way to support the local community. We are 30 seconds into this adventure, and we've already seen baboons and a red-tailed monkey. I can hardly wait for the chimpanzees. William, how long do you think it'll be until we see the chimps? I cannot really tell you at the time we can encounter chimps because they are wild. They just stay in one position that we shall find them there, but the nature tells. So, trekking with the gorillas has been on our bucket list for over 10 years now, but this summer, we binged this Netflix documentary called Chimp Empire, which is basically like a cross between Keeping Up with the Kardashians and a David Attenborough documentary. There's so much drama. You never know what's going to happen. You have to watch the next episode, but also, the cinematography is incredible. So, because we watched that documentary, we decided to drive an extra six hours and add the chimps on to this trip. This is like a warm-up for the gorillas. Having fun? Yes. Me too. Those are chimps' calls. The look on William's face when he heard the chimpanzee call. I just, I have so much excitement. It seems I'm having a lucky team. We're very lucky. Thank you. Foot mark of elephant. Recent foot mark. Look at this. An elephant was here. How often do you see elephants? Actually, two days back, I saw them around this place. Wow. Okay. Are you ready? I'm kind of excited, but I'm kind of nervous. Honestly, after watching that series this summer, I feel like a chimpanzee expert. I feel like I could probably hear their sounds if I tried. What am I supposed to do? Okay, actually, they told us not to try to speak to them. They have a lot of calls, but every call has its meaning. I myself, I cannot really tell what the chimpanzee is trying to say. Their eyes are like this. So, you ask me, then they say, let me reply you. All right, we're getting closer. We just found our first tracks. It was the knuckles of the chimp just perfectly imprinted into the trail. I like it when he does that. I just heard him. How do you know? I'm an expert. All right, we must be getting close. We're speeding up. We've lost the trail. Everything grabs you. I'm stuck. Now, it's turning into an adventure. So, also, this one are food for chimpanzee. Do you wish to taste? Yeah. Let me taste. Taste. It's Bakwetia. How is it? It's good. Do these hurt? So, we go. I didn't even know they were there. Thank you. You're welcome. We did not wear the right shoes. Thank you, thank you. This is the best tour ever. Oh, no. Just went to a whole new level. And your shoe got wet anyway. They're waterproof. So, follow me. All right, I think we're close. So, you need to have your face mask near. We put on our mask. Thank you, guys. Thank you. They found them. We're super close. So, we put on masks to make sure we don't spread any disease. We're just getting a small glimpse up into the leaves right now. My heart is racing after watching that documentary. We know what they're capable of. Oh, my God. I feel so obnoxiously human right now. Just flopping around. Trying not to fall on my face. The chimps are so graceful. Things are getting crazy. I feel like I'm trying to get a photo of Sasquatch right now. Oh, so much fruit. This is crazy. These golf ball sized fruits have been raining from the sky all over the place. It's only a matter of time before one hits us in the head. There's a group up there. Jumping around the trees, swinging branches. And they're so ripe that they're just falling so easily. Plus, they eat them really quickly. Squeeze all the juice in their mouth. And then they just drop them. Yeah, that would hurt coming from 100 feet up. So, a group of chimpanzees. It's called a colony. And this colony that we're with right now has over 100 members. We've been just following them, trying to keep up through the forest all morning. I think they finally feel safe in this giant fruit tree. They're just hanging out up there eating. So, it's hard to get a perspective for just how big these are because they're so far up in the tree. But chimpanzees can grow up to 5 feet and 150 pounds. So, a picture just like a little shorter than me and my exact same weight up there. Swinging from branch to branch. But also chimps are three times smaller than gorillas. So, I can't even fathom what it's going to be like to be face to face with a gorilla tomorrow. What were all the sounds we were hearing this morning? Like, when we would get close, they would get really loud. That's the noise that they were trying to make because they were at a different area. So, they were trying to make a call to meet. Wow, it was such an intense morning and now we're just hanging out, watching them eat, enjoy themselves. This is crazy. Chimpanzees, they have a predator of birds. When they find a baby in the nest, they always take. So, we have also pythons. They also grab the chimpanzee, the young one, the juvenile. They take them. They also have inter-community fights. So, when this community fights with another community, they reach an extent of killing each other. The next baby chimpanzee that is born, can you name it after me? Alright, we're leaving the chimps to finish their breakfast. I would never, ever get out of this forest alone. I couldn't even guess which way to go right now. And this might sound weird, but even though we were just barely seeing them through the bushes in the beginning, moving with them through the forest and trying to keep up was by far my favorite part. It was such an adrenaline rush. I'm pretty sure my skin got ripped in like eight different places. The funniest part is I didn't even care. Like, I would be like caught on something and I'd just be like... No wonder they were running from us. It was intense. We survived the jungle. Nice work, boys. Good try to go. Thanks for keeping it safe out there. Do you see if I have something? Oh, gosh, Nate. It's been in there for two hours. Oh, no. Okay, I'm going to get it. Okay, look. See? It's right there. Okay, it's getting closer to the corner. Oh, you poor thing. Ah, stop. Can you see it? I do. Oh, you're so close, Nate. You're so close. He's better than I am. Oh, he's so close. Oh, it's still there. I just pulled a tick out of Nate's eyeball. The reason it was stuck in there for two hours is because it's a tick. No, surely not. And that's what they do. They stick to things. That's disgusting. I cannot believe you had a tick in your eye. And you just left it there. Also, I don't think we've mentioned this yet, but we showed up, and this was a complete surprise. Phase one, complete. Okay, from here, we have a six, maybe eight-hour drive to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Highlights of the drive included stopping at the equator, which, by the way, we made a short debunking that the water spins in opposite directions when you're on one side versus the other. So we'll link that down below if you're interested. And then we passed back through the Queen Elizabeth National Park and saw an elephant way closer. So much closer. It had huge tusks, and it was just munching on the grass on the side of the road. Like, basically right beside the road. And... So far... Haven't seen a spider yet. See you in the morning. I'm so tired. Turns out chasing toads is hard work. Real quick, I want to give you a little sneak peek of what's coming up later in the episode. That was so amazing. Hopefully I've given you a reason to stick around. And while I've got you here, I want to quickly say a big thank you to today's sponsor, which is Surfshark. The same way that it would be really crazy and irresponsible for us to come out here without a guard and a guide is basically what it's like going on the internet without using VPN, which is why we love and use Surfshark. If you don't know what a VPN is, it stands for Virtual Private Network, and it encrypts all the data sent between your computer and the internet so that no one can steal your sensitive information. Same way the guards are protecting us in case we see an elephant or something out here, a VPN protects you when you're doing things like using a public Wi-Fi network, which can be a gold mine for hackers. But the good news is VPN is more than just digital insurance. It can also add some fun to your life because you can easily use a VPN to change the virtual location of your computer and get access to a completely new content library. So whether it be shows that aren't available in the U.S. or sports that you want to watch, a VPN will allow you to do that. If you don't already have a VPN, we highly recommend Surfshark. It is the only VPN to offer one account for unlimited devices. Plus, if you go to our link, surfshark.com forward slash KarenNate, you'll get an extra four months for free. It's linked in the description below, or you can scan the QR code here on the screen. Okay, we have the dream team assembled for today. This is our porter, Dennis. Yes. And then we have our guide, Gladys. Gladys! And then we have our guard, Annison. And our other guard, Baymak. The dream team. Thank you. We are off to see the gorillas. Back when Nate and I were in college, he used to make me watch this show called India Abroad. And I actually thought it was quite silly, but now I find it really funny. But we watched this one episode where he comes to Uganda and sits with gorillas. A bit of communication. And it blew my mind. I didn't know that people did this, and it has been on our bucket list ever since. And today's the day. The anticipation and excitement that is boiling over in my body right now is indescribable. When we see the gorillas, we're going to get to sit with them for an hour. And from what I understand, they're not like chimps. They're very calm and peaceful. So we have around 1063 gorillas in the whole world. And we have 459 within Bwindi. Wow. How many times have you had to shoot your gun? Three months ago, I shot once. Just in the air? Yeah, just in the air. An elephant? Yeah. You move up, down, up, down. And when it is rainy season, we try to use our bums down. How long do you think we'll hike before we see the gorillas? Maybe like let me see. We shall maybe use like five or three. But depending on how much these gorillas are moving, I'll keep calling the trackers. How are you doing? Where should we go? So they are the ones to tell me, let us go this side, don't go this side. The path will be this nice the whole time? And wide? No, no. There's a specific family of gorillas that we're looking for today. And there's supposed to be 12 of them in total. My expectations are through the roof because Gladys told me a few of them are young babies, which means they're extra curious. And I don't know, they may or may not want to come sit in my lap or cuddle. I'd be scared. So the rule is you're supposed to stay 10 meters away from the gorillas, but obviously the gorillas don't know that rule, so if they come closer to you, then you just get to accept it. So this is the valley where we came from. We've hiked up and around. So far we've climbed up about 400 feet, and we're at almost 7,000 feet in elevation. Look! Ah! There's more! That's the most ants I've ever seen! Awesome! It's like a waterfall of ants. Those ants are the reason we've been trekking with our pants tucked into our socks. Gladys was telling us that the small ants are the workers, and the big ones that you saw with the pincers on the top were the protectors. And she said if those get in your pants, then you'll be dancing like the women we saw this morning. So the trackers who have gone out in front of us to locate the gorillas haven't found them yet, so we don't really know which direction to go at this point, so we just sit and wait. They're looking for their poop. They're looking for their footprints. They're looking for plants that have been smooshed. Apparently they're on the move looking for their breakfast this morning. I wonder if pregnant gorillas have cravings. The trackers called. We're going to the gorillas. Let's go! In case you couldn't tell, the trackers have found the gorillas. Gorilla poop. You could basically be a tracker. This could be your new life. Hope you guys have enjoyed our travels the last eight and a half years. This is our new channel. Let the adventure begin. So we've been walking on a trail like this for the past hour. Into the jungle. This is a whole more of how I expected the day to go. We're keeping our voices down now because we're getting close. We want to come in calmly. Just to give off good energy. Maybe a little playful. To encourage the babies to come find us. The gorillas are definitely making us work for this. Pretty much every video that I've watched of people trekking with the gorillas, they've made getting there look miserable or really hard. But this is so fun. Our guide is about 20 feet in front of us and I can't even see her. She's just disappearing into the bushes. This trail that we're walking on right now was made by elephants. Which I'm very grateful for right now. This is an elephant footprint. Never said this but I really hope we don't see an elephant. It would be a very close encounter it feels like. I think it's the trackers. Oh, sorry. Okay, just like the chimps we share over 98% of our DNA with gorillas. Which means that we could easily transmit disease. Good job guys. Thank you for finding them. 50-50 chance I bawl my eyes out. He's making a friendly move. Oh, it's right there. Hi. I am staring at a mountain gorilla. We're making eye contact. She's so beautiful. Her hands look just like mine. I truly cannot believe that this is real life right now. Oh my god. The alpha male. I want you to observe the jaw. Are you seeing it now? Mashaya. This family of gorillas is named the Mashaya. And it's because the alpha male got in a fight with another group and he has this gash on his mouth. And Mashaya translates to jaw. So that's how they've named this group. I can't believe how chill they are. This is a totally different experience than yesterday. They're just hanging out very close to us and seem totally fine with our presence. Wow, even their ears look so human-like. If you're a vegetarian, then you're their closest friend. Are you a vegetarian? Yes, they're also vegetarian. They don't eat meat. No way! Yeah. They're 99% vegetarians. Wow. And the 1%, they enjoy the cocktail eggs. Ah, the ants. Oh my gosh. The babies. You don't need the zoom lens. We are so close. He's just scratching his back like a human. I can't tell how many of them there are back there, but there's at least 5. So there's a certain sound that the gorillas make and it kind of sounds like they're clearing their throat. So logo. And that's their way of pretty much just saying like is everybody good? So they say to make the sound back. We're just talking to wild gorillas. I'm scared I'm gonna reply in the wrong way and they're gonna get the wrong message. There are two babies and they're wrestling each other. I think watching them wrestle each other is just as good as getting cuddled by one. I can't get over the babies. Okay, so we've got the alpha male who can live to be about 45. We've got 3 females who can live up to 60 years old. And then 2 little babies. One is a year and 3 months and one is a year and 9 months. I've seen some leaves wrestling in the distance, so they're even more around us. Just a little crazy. Almost reach out and touch these. They just appeared out of the underbrush. They grew up there and then these just walked right in front of us. That was incredible. The baby is climbing the tree right there. Okay, there's another baby. It's a bit bigger and it's found itself a nice little spot up in a tree. And it's just hanging out pulling leaves, munching on them. It kind of looks like it just fell out of the tree. I feel like I can smell their fart. It's kind of funny I've just realized that gorillas have the opposite body hair as humans. Their stomach is hairy but their chest is smooth. Their chest is like the only place on their body where they don't have hair. This mom has just decided to bring her baby closer so he can check us out. She's just riding on her back through the jungle. It does feel like at times they stare straight into your soul. Here's where we are. Here's how close they are. I cannot believe how chill they are with us being here. I think this one's unhappy that his mom is sleeping. Was that a fart? That was a silverback fart. Wake up mom. Wake up mom. Wake up. Play with me. Please play with me. So cute. The piggyback rides. It's too cute to handle. You know it's good when even the guides are taking pictures. I feel so lucky. I can't believe this is my life. With gorillas you never get satisfied. Every minute every time is a new experience. We are with them ten years but every day is a new experience. Alright. Fastest hour of my life. There's no way it's time to go. This was beyond my wildest dreams. I don't want to leave but I like to follow the rules so there you go. There he goes. Goodbye gorillas. I love you. I'm not sure if you can tell but Kara has some big tears running down her face right now. I told you it was a 50-50 chance. I just remembered we get to do it again tomorrow. Now we get to do it. Without a doubt top five experiences of my entire life. And that includes things like getting married. I'm not just talking travel. That was incredible. Wedding day, out. Honeymoon, out. But tomorrow we're doing what's called a habituation trek. So we get to spend four hours with the gorillas instead of one like we did today. But these are gorillas that are being habituated. So gorillas that they're basically getting used to coming in contact with humans because that helps with conservation. Which means that we might not get as close but things like gorillas charging and more exciting things like that are much more likely to happen. So tomorrow is going to be very unpredictable. So at the very beginning when we first saw the gorillas, our guide told Kara to go up and make the introduction. So you can first come for introduction. We do another intro when we are with the gorillas. So who's to make the intro? Her? Sure. And when we were sitting on that bench hanging out she was telling us that basically the way you say like everything is okay to gorillas is I thought she wanted Kara to go up to the gorilla and go And Kara went up and she did it. And then the guide kept saying make the introduction so I was trying to encourage Kara to do it louder. We just didn't know what we were supposed to do. And it turned out she was trying to help with the video. She was trying to say okay now's your time to introduce that like we're here at the gorillas. That was after like three minutes of the longest most awkward introduction between Kara and a gorilla that I've ever seen. I literally almost told it my name. I was like maybe it's like a formal introduction. Hello, I'm Kara Buchanan. Alright, stage two complete. Last day. Hopefully the best day. Alright, we're on our way to pick up our guide and we're going to drive 30 minutes to a remote group of mountain gorillas. Today is going to be epic. This family has 17 members and considered to be one of the biggest groups that we have in this sector. Alright, we are on our way to spend four hours with the gorillas. Looking like it might be a little bit more of an interesting trek today. We are climbing straight up a mountain. Cosmos, what are the chances that we get charged by a gorilla today? 60%. 60%? Yes. Sometimes when we come for the first time they may start by charging. And the charging is normal with animals because they charge to see maybe if we have come to fight with them. But once they realize that we are not competing for anything, we are not making unnecessary movements, they may realize that maybe it's their mistake, not us. So the gorillas that we were hanging out with yesterday had been used to seeing humans for the past nine years. So for the most part, they were super calm. How long have you been spending time with this group? Now one year and two months. So the gorilla habitation experience is just the process of training the mountain gorillas by daily encounters between mountain gorillas and human beings so that the mountain gorillas can start looking at human beings as neutral beings or as friends living together in the same environment. And most cases, that experience takes two years of training the mountain gorillas. But sometimes we can go for more than two years. Especially if the dominant male or the leader of the group dies or if he leaves the group during the course of the training, we have to start afresh because it is the work of the dominant male to catch up easily and help us train the rest of the members. I'm embarrassed how hard I'm panting. We've officially climbed up above the clouds. So far so good, we are not lost. The way I look at you, you are in very nice shape. Even if it means hiking up to midnight, I'm sure you can still make it. This is elephant s**t. I don't know why they call it this. So the trackers have found the gorilla's trail from yesterday and now they're following that trail, trying to find them. So we know we're moving in the right direction but still no actual sightings of the gorillas yet. That's what we're hearing. Did they find them? Casual. We are attempting to penetrate the impenetrable forest. I expected the habituation experience to be a little bit more of an adventure and so far the hike has been just that. I think we're going straight up this. So there is a new silverback who has joined the family we are following today and that silverback has never seen humans. So the trackers are trying to see if the silverback can leave the group and then they continue with the original group. So we have to wait here for a few minutes and see how it goes. Oh my gosh! Just a refresher, the silverbacks are the ones who charge people. They also weigh 500 pounds. No, there's two of them. This is real experience of following the gorillas because we are following the family which is halfway trained. Now I've seen one of the members who is not yet trained. So I think we shall participate and do real gorilla habituation experience. Is it dangerous? It's not to be dangerous because we know the behaviors of these animals. So we shall try to behave so that they can look at us as very organized animals and neutral animals. It's normal that the mountain gorillas can start charging. Sometimes they can make those scaring vocalizations and they change their faces and they feel like these animals are not happy. But in case that happens we request you not start running. When you start running away from them the gorillas will think that you are a coward. Then they will start running after you and I'm very sure that you cannot run faster than the gorillas. I'm so nervous. I'm trying not to show it because I don't want to bring scared energy to the family. I want to arrive neutral and calm so that they accept me. Don't look into their eyes when they are charging and remain on a standstill. Avoid unnecessary movements. You can face somewhere. Make yourself busy. Once they see that you are not fighting you are not moving up and down they will think that maybe it's their mistake. Me and my team of the trackers we shall be there to guide you more about their behaviors so that you are safe and the gorillas are also safe throughout the whole time we shall spend with them. Notice that he said when they charge. We're getting so close and my heart is pounding but for very different reasons than yesterday. Yesterday I was just excited to see them and today I'm actually a little scared. Is that it? Is that the new one? The silverback is in the tree. We've only been here for five minutes but so far it is completely different from yesterday's experience. The gorillas are spread out all over the place and they're all up in the trees. They're very curious. They keep looking over at us checking us out. So just in the trees behind us is the silverback that's never seen humans before. I didn't even know he was there until he let out a big grunt. Wow that's ominous. Also there's no one between you and the silverback. Let's change that. This is definitely a bit more spooky. We're on the cliff of a mountain. Like extremely vertical and there's so much vegetation that they could be anywhere. So I'm a little scared to even move. Because I don't want to spook one which would equally spook me. Are you good Cosmos? Eyes on the silverback. There's also a mother with a baby on her back. We are just surrounded by gorillas right now. Like I just keep hearing like branches cracking. There's trekkers like around the parameter. They're all communicating. Do you think the other silverback being here is causing them to move more? They always move this much? This group originally has three silverbacks. So the new one is the fourth. So the other three are strong enough to push him away. So it's not a problem. They don't feel threatened? They're just smoking. That's good. If they don't feel threatened then neither do I. At least that's what I'm going to tell myself. It almost feels like the other silverback is stalking us. He's just kind of hanging out behind and he just appears every once in a while. Also all of this that you see, all these leaves that have been pushed down, this is all by the gorillas. We're just following their path right now. Stay here Cosmos. And this one is not the other silverback. This one is the blackback. Still a young man. The other silverback, Ritchie. Oh I see, I see. They call this family of gorillas Ritchie. And that translates to the door. And that's because the silverback of this family is old and strong. And pretty much anybody who wants to get to this family has to go through him. He's known to charge. So that's why they call him the door. I feel pretty honored that we haven't been charged yet. Knock on wood. From what I've learned it's really tough to be a male in the gorilla world. Like you basically always have to watch your back. There's always going to be another male trying to fight you and prove that he's stronger. I have the strongest urge to just go scratch his gigantic back. Somehow I keep getting put to the front of the group. Honestly I wouldn't be that scared had we not have been charged yesterday. But just let me know what it's really like. You see the mom right there? You're so funny. Wow. Well that was exciting. The mom with the baby got a little spooked and turned at us and yelled. And as soon as she did the silverback who's further down turned around and made his shoulders big and was staring at us. And I turned around and grabbed Cosmos. I need to work on my fight or flight. Boy do they eat a lot. Do they ever stop eating? So about 70% of the day is for eating. And the silverback, the big male can eat between 18-20 kilograms of vegetation per day. So they really eat a lot. How long do they sleep at night? For the whole night they sleep. And they are lucky that they don't have predators. There's no animal that hunts them. So their feet sleep the whole night. So the gorillas are the kings and queens of this jungle. That was a huge gorilla fart. Why is that so funny? I feel like I'm a middle school boy laughing at that. The babies are very active. You saw them very well in different corners of this field. So I can say that this is really the best I wanted you guys to have. You can't have a laugh. It's holding two of them. Everybody is super chill right now. And I think it's because the whole group is together. We can see all four silverbacks right now. She wanted to come and see what was going on up here. That was without a doubt the scariest moment of my entire life. My heart rate has gone down to 120. Who knows what it was. You can't appreciate it unless you're here. The feeling that comes over your body is just primal. When a 500 pound silverback gorilla turns towards you, bows its shoulders up, and then just starts walking towards you. Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm going to throw up. I just saw my whole leg flash before my eyes. They tell us not to look. So I was trying not to look, but I also couldn't look away. I just couldn't help but slowly back away. But I made eye contact with our guards and they both looked at me and went like you just have to stand there. Which is so incredibly unnatural. 115. It's coming down. Slowly. Were you scared? No. You ask it. Gosh, he was walking towards us so slowly, but so intentionally. He hid behind a bush that was literally five feet away and then turned around and walked back. Thanks Cosmos. You're the man. You also saw the silverback try to charge a little bit. It was testing our strength. I'm happy that he did not run away so fast. Me too. Otherwise we are going to have a different experience. Yes. But I'm happy that the gentleman was a bit strong. Yeah, but I forgot all about the camera. So it is also an experience for us because once we leave them without seeing that, then we may not get storage there when we are back. That's right. So this is a real experience for all of us. That's right. As we keep following them, I think they are about to get some rest, whereby I may find it hard for us to get clear views. But I'm happy that what we have seen is even more than sometimes when we stay with them for four hours. Why is habituation important? When there are many habituated gorillas, there are more rangers employed to patrol the forest and protect the forest. When the communities are benefiting from conservation activities or from mountain gorilla conservation, they don't come into the forest porch because they are benefiting from the resource that we are conserving. So they may not interfere with the integrity of the forest. So the more the people are happy from the conservation activities, the more they join hands with the government to protect the gorillas, hence the survival of the mountain gorillas. Wow. I just learned the coolest fun fact. They did the first official mountain gorilla count in 1997, and there were only 300 here in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Congo. And today, in 2024, there are over 1,000. 1,063. So the conservation is working. The rain is moving in. All the gorillas are going to sleep in this very thick brush. And it's feeling like this is the end. I can't even be sad that this is over. Like we said before, I've been envisioning this day for so long that I thought there was no way it would live up to my expectations. And I can truly say it has exceeded every single dream that I had for this trip. I can't believe we got to do it. It's just amazing. We've been lucky enough over the last nine years to have some incredible wildlife experiences. Like more than we could have ever dreamed that we would have in a lifetime. But without a doubt, this was number one. That spider right there is the size of my hand. It's okay. We've got the bug net around the bed, so it's all going to be fine. You're just going to leave it there? That's my plan. Are you kidding? No, we're sleeping in the safety of the bug net. Oh. My. Gosh. Nate. Spiders can crawl under things. That's what they do. This guy is just sleeping in the middle of the road. I thought he might be dead, but he was asleep. Wake up. There's a car coming. And they're naming a chimp after me. Maybe. See you later. They might demand one of us to be given to them. Give us goodness. Okay, fine. I'll live in the forest.