2017 Rwanda

The rest of this guy's story will be on youtube, but basically, he was busy munching on branches when we arrived. He was no more than 5 feet from us, but he was undisturbed. I asked the head ranger if I could move a branch which was blocking my view. He told me the branch was the gorilla's food and to stay away from it. No problem.... I take direction well in these kinds of situations. Not so for the couple who was traveling with us. They were both in front of me when one of them, without asking, reached for the blocking branch. At that point, the ranger shouted "don't touch his food!", but the warning was ignored. As soon as our companion's hand got close to the branch, the silverback charged. Since he was so huge and so close, he hit me hard, knocking me to the ground trying to get to the offender. He just kept coming until the rangers managed to put themselves between us and the gorilla and got the humans moved back. This maneuvering was very difficult because we were in dense jungle with a floor of vines. The head ranger grabbed the gorilla, at which point the gorilla got the ranger's arm and shoulder in his mouth, but thankfully he (the gorilla) was just issuing a warning and no serious damage was done. At that point the silverback calmed down and moved away, but not before a tracker waved a machete in his face. Very poor start for Sheri and me, but it's a story that will get better with age (especially once the bruises heal).