05/03/04: From Mark
I really did not know what I was getting myself into. I initially thought that a live broadcast from the natural habitat of the Mountain Gorilla (which had never been done before) would be something that Global Nomads Group could accomplish, and was surely worthwhile.
We have done broadcasts from the Mayan ruins in Copan (Honduras), on top of a roof in Baghdad just after the war, but wild gorillas? I truly believe that the officials from the ORTPN initially thought we were mad. Sure they have had films made where a few cameras are used, but live? They were skeptical. We explained that we had a special generator, with a setup that would allow them to look at a screen and receive and answer questions, and see the gorillas from a distance without disturbing them. The whole time I was pretty darn nervous about pulling it off. How can one know all the variables of something that had never been tried before?
As Chris and Brian mentioned, luck was on our side. It took about 20 people in total to make this whole thing happen but in the end, it did! What an amazing feat to capture such beauty, live, without disruption to the habitat, and knowing that students are seeing these beautiful creatures live from thousands of miles away. The first family we did the live broadcast from, group Sabinyo, consisted of ten gorillas. Given the think dense vegetation they were in, we focused on three of them.
There was the HUGE silverback that was basically lying down chilling out, a female holding her 2-week old baby, which looked so human it was scary, along with another female close by. The pictures should offer you an insight into these incredible creatures.
The second day, Ingrid, Janet and their teacher Maria joined us. We woke up extremely early to reach a group of 13 gorillas called the AMAHORO group (this means ‘peace’ in Kinyarwanda). WOW. Another trek through thick trees and vines as well as a bamboo forest that was pretty unexpected. Initially they thought that the group was about an hour’s climb. Three hours later we reached the group and immediately forgot about the trek. Again, I share pictures with you so you guys can see the stunning beauty of the Mountain Gorilla. I observed 2 infants for quite some time. They were having so much fun, for about half an hour they were teasing and play fighting with each other – reminding me exactly of my brother, Alex and I, age 10 and 11, sitting in a car on a 10 hour drive. The teasing began slowly and then broke out into an all out struggle! I managed to capture a series of pictures – no not of my brother and me but of the “other” brothers! See below.
Posted by gng at May 3, 2004 10:08 PM
