Caught in the Act showcases several of wildlife’s most remarkable moments. Experts explain each moment in the field, while eyewitnesses describe the extraordinary events surrounding the footage.
Close friends Jonathan Rossouw and John King are true nature lovers, but a trip to see wild gorillas in Uganda gets them more love than they're comfortable with.
Tracking mountain gorillas is an utterly unique wildlife experience. The two friends track mountain gorillas at a park which is very evocative named Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. That name perfectly sums up the terrain. It is steep mountainous terrain dense undergrowth. You track gorillas wherever they happen to be feeding.
As John King says: “They make you work for it. You wake up early, and it’s quite a long hike. We were prepared to walk for a long time. I must say we covered a lot of farmland and then into the bush.”
John and Jonathan spent two days in the forest. Finally, hard work paid off with their first glimpse of some wild gorillas.
“Wild parts of Uganda are so surprisingly beautiful.” John continued. “By the time you get to the gorillas, you almost forgot that’s the main reason that you came.”
The mates were thrilled to find those jungle apes that they have worked so hard to discover, only to find out the gorillas have been looking for them as well.
Jonathan said: “I woke up one morning, and I opened the door to my cabin, and there was a gorilla on the path, so I ran around to the entire group saying, guys, you will not believe it one of the most incredible things that’s happening..”
John continued: “I heard Jonathan’s voice, and I instantly came alert, and I knew as I had to move fast but just had time to grab my small video cam, dashed out I sat down right in the middle of their path. I wasn’t really thinking because if the gorillas have touched me, they would have to walk right over me in order to get to where they were going to go.”
Gorillas are actually herbivores and usually no threat to people. However, one way to get yourself attacked by an animal is to get too close to its babies, and 180-kilogram dominant male silverback gorilla is protecting this family.
John knows that, so he tried to disappear into the background, but a youngster is curious about the human despite the closeness of his minder.
This silverback turned around to see his son touching an odd object, and there was the moment in which you can really see the silverback thinking: do I react aggressively or do I let it happen?
The silverback then reached down and tried to pull his child away from the human and in typical 2-year-old fashion this baby gorilla shifted around and shouted: NO! I want to have a look at what is happening here.
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