If there is one wildlife experience in the world that I'd have to recommend to other, similarly-minded individuals, it would be to go see the very highly-endangered Mountain Gorillas in East Africa. There are groups in each of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC that can be visited. Doing so isn't a cheap excursion (in addition to the expense of just getting to East Africa) and, as the number of visitors to the gorillas is heavily regulated plus how the gorillas make their home in a politically iffy part of the world, it takes some advance planning to do. But when you finally do come upon the gorillas in the bamboo forest, surrounded by adults and youngsters doing their thing sometimes only mere feet from you, it's magic unlike anything else.

There is but one dominate male in each group, the Silverback. This shot is of our group's Silverback (we visited 'Group 13').

Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda

Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)

If there is one wildlife experience in the world that I'd have to recommend to other, similarly-minded individuals, it would be to go see the very highly-endangered Mountain Gorillas in East Africa. There are groups in each of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC that can be visited. Doing so isn't a cheap excursion (in addition to the expense of just getting to East Africa) and, as the number of visitors to the gorillas is heavily regulated plus how the gorillas make their home in a politically iffy part of the world, it takes some advance planning to do. But when you finally do come upon the gorillas in the bamboo forest, surrounded by adults and youngsters doing their thing sometimes only mere feet from you, it's magic unlike anything else.

There is but one dominate male in each group, the Silverback. This shot is of our group's Silverback (we visited 'Group 13').

Location: Parc National des Volcans (Volcano National Park), Rwanda

Lens used: n/a (Canon S1 IS point-and-shoot)