Growling With the Gorillas: A Rwanda Mountain Trek

"It's not easy shaking a bad reputation. Take the gorilla, for example: It's been saddled with a sketchy rep for as long as anyone can remember. Something along the lines of big, hairy, ferocious and superhuman in strength. A bit daunting, perhaps. And yet folks who work with and study gorillas say they are as much gentle as giant. I recently had the opportunity to find out for myself thanks to a trip organized by the International Reporting Project that took us to Rwanda."

"More than half of the world's mountain gorillas live in the Virunga mountains of East Africa, a volcanic chain that straddles Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. For years, a chunk of the Virungas has been protected from poachers and farmers, so unlike much of the land in this area that's been cleared for crops, the Virungas are still covered by lush rain forests."