There's actually a second gorilla in this shot, a younger one, but it's much more difficult to see because it doesn't look like a gorilla in this picture because part of it is obscured by vegetation..
At the top right are two white tree trunks. If you look at the base of the one on the left, and then look too the right there is a little black blob almost directly below the second white trunk (but a smidge to the right) just as you get to the leaves of the large tree coming in from the right. If you enlarge the photo it looks like a black blob above another black blob. The bottom blob is a tree stump, the one on top is the young gorilla.
Just shows you how much fun it is trying to find them!
Is this how their habitat has more or less always looked? (A few trees here and there but with thick undergrowth.) Or have these hills been cleared years ago, or were there fires etc.
As I said in the blog, these slopes were outside the National Park and had been cleared for agricultural purposes. They were overgrown with ground covers and some small shrubs, the hill in the picture above still has some trees. The forest where they normally live has tall trees and is much denser.
Bwindi is a few hours drive from the border with Rwanda. It is, however, on the border with the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Rwanda is a safe place to visit, DRC is not.
Having said that, Bwindi is a safe place to visit, as was other areas near the DRC border. Of course, that can change quickly if the Congolese Army decide to make some incursions.
