Description

After a 3 hour hike into the dense Central African jungle I finally caught up with the family of chimpanzees that had been moving briskly away from me all morning. My legs were shaking from both fatigue and excitement. This was my first time being in the presence of wild chimpanzees. Unlike gorillas or orangutans, these guys move quickly across the forest covering a great distance. One of my biggest challenges was to get the camera to lock on to a dark moving animal in a low lit jungle. The kind of conditions photography nightmares are made of. This particular member of the group was intimately curious about my presence. For minutes it stared into my eyes then into my camera. I so badly wanted to know what it was thinking or to communicate with it in some way. Nyungwe Forest National Park is currently home to this family and a few other chimpanzee families. They desperately need our help protecting their home from deforestation. 10% will be donated to The Gabby Wild Foundation