Science writer Christina Larson, Washington; visual journalists Bram Janssen, Istanbul, and Marshall Ritzel, New York, and global enterprise photographer Felipe Dana for the seventh installment of the “What Can Be Saved” series, working across formats to produce a stunning look at one of the planet’s rare conservation victories: the recovering populations of Africa’s mountain gorillas. The team endured long, steep hikes and fought through dense underbrush to get close to the animals, as well as building strong portraits of the people who live and work alongside the gorillas.
A silverback mountain gorilla named Segasira walks in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Sept. 2, 2019. A concerted and sustained conservation campaign has averted the worst and given a second chance to these great apes, which share about 98% of human DNA.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Jean Claude Masengesho sits in his house during an interview in Kinigi, Rwanda, Sept. 7, 2019. The 21-year old lives with his parents and helps them farm potatoes. About once a week, the he earns a little extra money helping tourists carry their bags up the mountain, totaling about $45 a month. He would like to someday become a tour guide, which would earn him about $320 monthly.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Video journalist Bram Janssen interviews gorilla tracker Emmanuel Bizagwira in his home in Rwanda.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Reporter Christina Larson, left, and global enterprise video journalist Bram Janssen work in the rainforest in Kinigi, Rwanda, for a “What Can Be Saved?" installment exploring efforts to save the mountain gorilla from extinction in Rwanda.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
Gorilla trackers Emmanuel Bizagwira, right, and Safari Gabriel observe two gorillas from the Agasha group playing in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Sept. 4, 2019. George Schaller, a renowned biologist and gorilla expert, conducted the first detailed studies of mountain gorillas in the 1950s and early ’60s, in what was then the Belgian Congo. He also was the first to discover that wild gorillas could, over time, become comfortable with periodic human presence, a boon to researchers and, later, tourists.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A silverback mountain gorilla named Segasira lies under a tree in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Sept. 2, 2019. Once depicted in legends and films like “King Kong” as fearsome beasts, gorillas are actually languid primates that eat only plants and insects, and live in fairly stable, extended family groups. Their strength and chest-thumping displays are generally reserved for contests between male rivals.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana
A silverback mountain gorilla named Segasira looks up as he lies under a tree in the Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, Sept. 2, 2019. The late American primatologist Dian Fossey, who began the world’s longest-running gorilla study here in 1967, would likely be surprised any mountain gorillas are left to study. Alarmed by rising rates of poaching and deforestation in central Africa, she predicted the species could go extinct by 2000.
AP Photo / Felipe Dana