An incredible encounter between a man and a silverback gorilla is going viral on social media. The man, identified as Collin, was unable to hike due to his age but was determined to fulfil his lifelong dream of seeing mountain gorillas in the wild. His fellow safari goers and porters carried him on a stretcher, allowing him to participate in the trek.
The group, led by Royal Ngala Safaris founder Cameron Scott, was searching for the famous Hirwa gorilla family, known for having twins. However, they were unexpectedly met by the gorillas in a secluded clearing. Scott described the encounter as a "blindsided" one, as the gorillas had been chased from their location by another silverback.
Despite the lack of preparation, Collin was carefully lowered to the ground and had a rare face-to-face encounter with one of the Hirwa twins, now a mature black-backed gorilla. Scott called the experience "unbelievable and hilarious."
Cameron Scott shared the video on Instagram and wrote, "This was a first for me. Our group was searching for the famous Hirwa family, which means (lucky) in the local Kinyarwanda language. Lucky because this family was blessed with twins that both survived to adulthood. One of our group members, Collin, was unable to get up the mountain and was actually carried up in a stretcher bed by our amazing guides and porters to achieve his lifelong dream of encountering wild mountain gorillas in the wild."
"What transpired was actually amazing, as we were blindsided by the Gorilla family we were actually tracking as they had been chased down from their original location by a lone aggressive Silverback. This resulted in us bumping into each other in a small clearing without any preparation or warning. Collin was immediately lowered to the ground, and he ended up having a very rare encounter of a lifetime with one of the twins, who was now, in fact, a proud black-backed gorilla. Another unbelievable and hilarious experience," the founder of Royal Ngala Safaris added.
