L??fini Faunal Reserve, Republic of the Congo, Africa
1998
Michael Nichols

Rehabilitator Despina Chronopoulos works with a young female gorilla in the field. This interaction is part of the process that the conservation group Project Protection des Gorilles is using to encourage the gorillas to form their own social groups under the leadership of dominant males. The hope is that the gorillas will eventually be returned to their natural environment as a group.

(Photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Lowland Gorillas," February 2002, National Geographic magazine)

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