gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

Olive Baboons were a common site in most savanna areas like Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls NPs .

Bold and inquisitive, habituated baboons, especially mature males can be quite dangerous with larger incisor teeth than a Lion, but in most areas where they occur we were confined to the vehicles.

Patas Monkeys occur in savanna areas and are more often seen on the ground than in trees.

Patas Monkeys habitually stand on their hind legs to scan for predators. As primates moved out of the forest into the newly formed savannas millions of years ago, this behaviour may have led to the evolution of bi-pedalism in our earliest hominid ancestors.

Vervet Monkeys are another typical primate of acacia dominated savanna.

We saw these Blue Monkeys in the Budongo and Bwindi forests.

Red-tailed Monkeys are restricted to the Congo region reaching their easternmost point in western Uganda.

Guereza (or Eastern Black-and -white) Colobus always look like a collection of wise old men surveying the scene below.

This Grey-cheeked Mangaby has an infant clutched to her chest.

The pretty little L’Hoest’s Monkey was a real treat at Kibale and Bwindi.

Seeing Chimpanzees at close range was one of the highlights of the trip. Their is real intelligence in their eyes. The chimps at Kibale are completely used to humans and just go on their way and ignore you.

One of several adult chimps we saw in the late afternoon. apparently it is scanning the tree tops looking for a place to build a nest for the night.

Probably the best experience of the trip, if not the best experience of any trip, was the hour spent with the Eastern Gorillas at Bwindi. This silverback, the dominant male of the group, was completely indifferent to us.

His ‘second in command’, a black-backed male, however watched us closely. When the troupe moved off we followed, but the black-back took up the rear and stayed behind us. There was no suggestion of aggression from these gentle giants, except when a our guide cut a branch with a machete to allow for better photos. The black-back did a mock charge, teeth bared and the guide sensibly withdrew.

As you would expect, the young Gorillas were the most active.

Most of the time the group just lay about, digesting their last meal and farting loudly.

As Sir David Attenborough famously said ‘there is more meaning and mutual understanding in exchanging a glance with a Gorilla than with any other animal I know’