INTENSE MOMENT A SILVERBACK GORILLA POUNDED HIS CHEST IN FRONT OF A PHOTOGRAPHER

It takes a lot of effort and sacrifice to acquire the ideal shot in the field of wildlife photography. Sometimes you have to wait for hours on end for an animal to show up or to kill time till the weather improves. In Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, a photographer's patience paid off when she had the rare opportunity to witness a silverback gorilla striking its chest up close. It was an exciting and tense moment.

Fortunately, photographer Richard De Gouveia was able to record this exchange and post it to Instagram. "The greenery was dense, and the clouds were getting darker when we first arrived. As the storm approached and the gorillas fed, the trackers were looking for vistas for us,” he remembers. "What began as a drizzle developed into a deluge, and the gorillas and we both sought refuge."

The camera captures the silverback gorilla's profile when he arrives in the foreground of the video. He is being watched from the background by the photographer, who is holding a camera. Suddenly, the gorilla rushes toward the photographer's seat while simultaneously hammering his chest.

De Gouveia, who also acts as a guide, adds, "While watching another gorilla, the silverback came storming in from behind us and put on a show that won't be forgotten in a hurry by our cool, calm, and collected guest who handled the event admirably." "She then went outside to ensure that we stayed a safe distance away from the gorillas."

Additional information about this expedition and its plans to care for both photographers and wildlife was added by De Gouveia. Theoretically, we aim to keep a significant distance, but in practice, things don't always go as planned. Masks let us keep as much distance as possible and reduce the likelihood that we will spread our infections to others," he continues. "We are also only allowed to spend an hour with the family because that is when the likelihood of our spreading our illnesses to them grows dramatically."

Even though this encounter ended amicably, it serves as a reminder of the enormous efforts wildlife photographers make to get us up close and personal with species that we otherwise wouldn't know much about.