“The Mountain Gorilla is my favourite animal. I’ve been fortunate enough to go many times to the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda to see gorillas.

The gorilla is probably the most impressive creature that you can encounter in your life. When you are face to face, you realize how massive and peaceful they are, although they’re not peaceful all the time, especially the silverbacks.

Whenever I go to photograph the gorillas, I come back with more stories, but the most important thing was to see in the field how the conservation work is important for such endangered species. Mountain gorillas were almost extinct in the 1980s, with less than 300 individuals remaining in the wild. But now, thanks to all the conservation services in the three countries where the gorillas are present, DRC, Uganda and Rwanda, the whole population is now more than 1000.  

The conservation agencies of these three countries can take credit for this success, especially in Rwanda as the President Kagame involved himself in the gorillas’ conservation. Also, nothing would have been possible without the major role played by the tourism, a very sustainable type of tourism.  It costs a fortune to visit the gorillas (1500 USD per person per day in Rwanda) but now we can say that it pays off and the mountain gorillas’ population is rising. They were removed recently from the ‘Critically Endangered’ species list to ‘only’ an ‘Endangered’, which is already a great achievement.”

www.christophe-courteau.com
www.instagram.com/thewildphotographer

My Big 5

Gorilla
Chimpanzee
African Elephant
Leopard
Polar Bear