Gorillas
Closer than you think
Africa is home to four subspecies of gorilla: Western lowland, Eastern lowland, Cross River, and Mountain. The world’s largest primates range through central African forests, and can be found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo.
Although no less endangered, Western and Eastern lowland gorillas are far more numerous than their Mountain cousins, with a combined population of 120,000, and range on the eastern and western rims of the Congo Basin.
The Mountain gorilla is restricted to just two highland areas on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. They were brought to the brink of extinction by deforestation, poaching, human disease, and war, but a recent census showed an increase in numbers. Still, only a few hundred Mountain gorillas remain in the wild, and since there are none in captivity the future of the entire species depends on them
Gorillaphiles speak out
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
“These animals are not only so closely linked to us and have similar trains of thought, but they took over seven million years to develop into these perfections of nature and we cant afford to wipe them out in the blink of an eye”
Douglas Adams
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
“I watched the gorilla's eyes again, wise and knowing eyes, and wondered about this business of trying to teach apes language. Our language. Why? There are many members of our own species who live in and with the forest and know it and understand it. We don't listen to them. What is there to suggest we would listen to anything an ape coul
“I watched the gorilla's eyes again, wise and knowing eyes, and wondered about this business of trying to teach apes language. Our language. Why? There are many members of our own species who live in and with the forest and know it and understand it. We don't listen to them. What is there to suggest we would listen to anything an ape could tell us? Or that it would be able to tell us of its life in a language that hasn't been born of that life? I thought, maybe it is not that they have yet to gain a language, it is that we have lost one.”
Michael Crichton
Leonardo DiCaprio
Michael Crichton
“I had been around other great apes, and I had never had such a feeling. Yet here, among a group of gorillas, creatures that did not look or smell like human beings, I had the distinct sense that we all understood one another. It was overpowering, and sad. When I left them, it was like awakening from a dream.”
Gorilla Greg
Expert Gorilla Guide and Writer
In Uganda in 2009, Greg Cummings established Gorillaland Safaris, with the aim of guiding clients in safety and comfort to meet gorillas in the wild. Greg had achieved notable success as director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund UK protecting gorilla populations in Africa. The millions of dollars, euros and pounds he raised from companies, foundations and individuals around the world was invested into communities adjacent to gorilla habitats, which helped ensure the gorillas' survival. It's Greg's proudest achievement.
As a veteran safari guide, he has taken movie producers, heads of industry, diplomats, and celebrities to meet great apes in the wild. After trekking with him in the Congo jungle, Steve McQueen, who won a Best Picture Oscar for Twelve Years A Slave, remarked, “Basically he’s Dennis Hopper out of Apocalypse Now!”
Greg is a consummate storyteller and has appeared with Tom Brokaw on Today, participated in documentaries for the BBC, NPR, and CBC, and published articles in The Guardian, Sea Angler, and Ecologist. He has published two action adventure novels set in Africa: Gorillaland and Pirates, and is currently writing a trilogy of memoirs.
Hello Human
Welcome to Gorillaland! Come visit me and my hairy mountain cousins in the wild. We're closer than you think...