2006: The Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species - Specially Commended
Suzi Eszterhas (United States of America)
Human encounter
Mother mountain gorillas rarely let young babies wander out of arm's reach. But this 10-month-old was allowed to play on a bamboo stem while his mother gathered nettles in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. He concentrated on climbing for a few metres and then 'stopped to look at me', says Suzi. 'It was like looking into the eyes of a human - an adorable moment. He seemed so vulnerable.' He and his kin are vulnerable. With just 380 in the Virunga Mountain range in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, surrounded by a sea of agriculture, and only about 320 in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, mountain gorillas are highly endangered.
Canon EOS 1D Mark II, with 70-200mm f2.8 lens; 1/200 sec at f3.2; 800 ISO.
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