This is the emotional moment an elderly man fulfilled his life-long dream of meeting a gorilla in the wild after guides helped him into the jungle on a stretcher in Rwanda.
Footage shows the tourist, named only as Collin, being lifted to within a few yards of the huge primate which watches on with other gorillas in the background.
It is not yet clear why Collin had to be lifted up to the mountain jungle on a stretcher, but guide Cameron Scott called the experience ‘amazing’, ‘lucky’ and the ‘experience of a lifetime’.
Colin is elderly and his exact age, identity and nationality has not been revealed.
They carried him through the dense forest right up until he met the primate.
The group, led by Royal Ngala Safaris founder Cameron Scott, was searching for the famous Hirwa gorilla family, known for having twins.
This is the amazing encounter of a man fulfilling his lifelong dream of meeting a gorilla
They found them in a clearing.
Scott said that they were in that clearing because they had been chased there by a Silverback.
Collin was carefully lowered to the ground and had a rare face-to-face encounter with one of the grown up twins.
Cameron Scott shared the video on Instagram and wrote, ‘This was a first for me. Our group was searching for the famous Hirwa family, which means (lucky) in the local Kinyarwanda language.
‘Lucky because this family was blessed with twins that both survived to adulthood.
‘One of our group members, Collin, was unable to get up the mountain and was actually carried up in a stretcher bed by our amazing guides and porters to achieve his lifelong dream of encountering wild mountain gorillas in the wild.’
Scott went on to talk about the encounter.
![Collin was carefully lowered to the ground and had a rare face-to-face encounter](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/03/22/10/82770033-13227185-image-a-14_1711104204463.jpg)
Collin was carefully lowered to the ground and had a rare face-to-face encounter
He said: ‘What transpired was actually amazing, as we were blindsided by the Gorilla family we were actually tracking as they had been chased down from their original location by a lone aggressive Silverback.
‘This resulted in us bumping into each other in a small clearing without any preparation or warning.
‘Collin was immediately lowered to the ground, and he ended up having a very rare encounter of a lifetime with one of the twins, who was now, in fact, a proud black-backed gorilla.
‘Another unbelievable and hilarious experience.’
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