High Five took the winning photograph in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. He spent four days trekking through misty forests in search of gorilla families in their natural habitat, until he found his subject. The image shows a young gorilla seemingly mid-dance, its right paw raised as if offering a high-five, with a bewildered look on its face.

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Meth-Cohn encountered the Amahoro family, a large group of gorillas, gathered in a forest clearing during the expedition. While the adults calmly foraged, the younger members played. “One young male was especially keen to show off his acrobatic flair: pirouetting, tumbling, and high-kicking,” Meth-Cohn explains in a statement. “His performance was pure joy, and I’m thrilled to have captured his playful spirit in this image.”

Selected from over 10,000 entries from 109 countries, High Five also won the Mammals category. According to Stefan Maier, Nikon Europe’s senior general manager of marketing, the shortlisted images were chosen for their “joy, skill and imagination in capturing the natural world”. He added that Meth-Cohn’s work “perfectly represents the playful spirit of wildlife”.

Meth-Cohn also received a Highly Commended mention for another photograph, Aaaawa – mum, showing a baby gorilla being kissed by its mother.

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Other category winners

In the Reptile, Amphibian and Insect category, 13-year-old Grayson Bell from the United States won with his comical image of two frogs locked in a watery struggle, titled Baptism of the Unwilling Convert, a comical image of two frogs locked in a watery struggle. This photograph also earned him the Nikon Junior Photographer Award, which is open to photographers aged 16 and under. ‘I lay on my belly with my camera, watching them and taking shots,’ said Bell.

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The Young Photographer Award (for photographers under 25) went to Paula Rustemeier of Germany for Hit the Dance Floor, a lively image of two foxes at play.

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The UK featured prominently among the winners. Warren Price claimed the Think Tank Birds Award with Headlock, showing a guillemot peering through its partner’s bill, while Jenny Stock won the Fish and Other Aquatic Species Award for Smiley, an expressive underwater portrait of a blue-striped fangblenny.

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Maggie Hoffman of the United States won the Amazing Internet Portfolio Award for her four-image series Digging for Gold, featuring a chimpanzee picking its nose. Germany’s Tatjana Epp was named Video Category Winner for Surfing Heron, a clip showing a heron skimming across the surface of the water.

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Other images receiving Highly Commended mentions included Kalin Botev’s Monkey Circus, showing a group of playful monkeys; Meline Ellwanger’s photograph of yawning lions; Valtteri Mulkahainen’s smiling bear; and Lilian Luca’s image of a lemur licking its finger.

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He took the photograph in Madagascar, and recounted how the lemur stared at him and “with the grace of a stage actor and the timing of a comedian raised his hand, licking it thoughtfully as if he knew exactly what he was doing”.

Along with the handmade trophy, Meth-Cohn won a safari in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and a Think Tank camera bag. The public can still cast its vote for the People’s Choice Award online until 1 March 2026.

L’article Dancing gorilla wins 2025 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards in Rwanda est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Michaella Rugwizangoga, Chief Tourism Officer of the RDB said that each gorilla family in the park has a hashtag so visitors can become “citizen scientists“, capturing photos of the gorillas’ recorded behavior, changes to the group, interactions of interest, and even alerts to any injuries or concerns.

The data location of each family is not recorded since the hashtags aren’t geotags, making sure that the animals are well protected. Additionally, the park only issues 80 ranger-guided tracking permits per day, ensuring that the increased data won’t lead to overtourism or threaten the gorillas. No one is allowed to visit the gorillas without a guide.

1. Gorilla families

There are currently 12 families and each will have its social media pages. They include Agashya, Amahoro, Hirwa, Igisha, Isimbi, Kwisanga, Kwitonda, Muhoza, Noheli, Sabyinyo, Susa and Umubano, according to New Times Rwanda. Rwanda is home to over a third of the remaining populations of mountain gorillas in the world, and there have been intentional efforts invested in conserving and protecting them such that over recent decades, the population has grown to over 1,063 individuals, up from just 480 in 2010.

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2. Gorilla trekking

Critics of this new initiative may call it a public relations stunt, questioning the real value of using social media when considering the protection of wild gorillas. The fact is that revenue generated from gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park amounted to $11 million within the first six months of 2022, according to New Times Rwanda. No doubt that this revenue based on tourism has greatly contributed to the development of Rwanda’s economy. Data from the World Bank suggests that Rwanda currently aspires to Middle Income Country status by 2035 and High-Income Country status by 2050. 

L’article Rwanda encourages tourists to protect gorillas by using social media est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

One of the main inhabitants of this area is the endangered mountain gorilla, whose population has increased over the last decade or so. According to research, figures from 2016 show that the total gorilla population has topped 600 individuals, an increase from 480 in 2010. To accommodate the growing numbers, the park is being expanded by nearly 64km, the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and Rwandan government disclosed.

This expansion of Volcanoes National Park will allow for nearly 39 sqkm to be dedicated to the national park, and more than 65 sqkm for a “buffer zone”. This buffer zone will allow for agroforestry and agricultural activities between the park and local communities.

It is hoped that the expansion will help the gorilla populations further by providing more space and so avoiding group conflicts over territory, as well as lessening the number of gorillas who leave the park in search of resources.

L’article Rwanda makes room for increasing number of Gorillas est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Gorilla Highland Experts is a responsible travel membership service, a club offering unique online resources and events enabling people to enjoy the Gorilla Highlands region shared by Rwanda fully, Uganda and DR Congo — virtually or in person. Storytelling is the foundation of their work. The experts are “people planning to visit the Gorilla Highlands, people who have already been and want to stay in touch, and people who are just looking for quality relaxation.” Through Gorilla Highlands Experts, they share their enthusiasm d and knowledge of the area with each other people who have already been and want to stay in touch, and people who are just looking for quality relaxation.

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Gorilla Highlands offers experiences for local and international visitors: “All-inclusive trips are a small-scale alternative to a typical African safari, for a traveler who wishes to treat the cultures and environment with respect and learn something new on the way.” Gorilla Highlands Experts has grown out of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative, which has been using tourism as an economic and social development tool since 2011. They seek to use tourism to benefit those at the bottom of the tourism pyramid by empowering them to raise their incomes and be treated with respect. They “want local communities to have the material means to make decisions over their own land, but also to gain the confidence to take matters into own hands. One of the pillars of responsible tourism that lies at the core of what we try to do, is engendering cultural respect between tourists and hosts. We want to boost local pride and confidence.”

They have been reflecting recently on how they feel about ecotourism and sustainability and found them both lacking.

“In the name of sustainability, development organisations have often implemented strategies in poor countries that they think have ecological benefits, but that are detrimental to local communities. Those strategies then often prove to be harmful to the forests and the animals in the long run as well. When the first national park Yellowstone was created in 1872, indigenous people had to move out and make place for tourists and visitors to enjoy the ‘unspoiled nature’. Ironically, the removal of the indigenous population led to an ecosystem imbalance. After hunting was forbidden, the park rangers had to start killing game animals because the population got too high. So the park still needed to be constantly managed by people.

As we choose to focus on responsibility, it reminds us to continuously consider the implications of our actions. To not just follow the dominant discourses on what is considered ecologically sustainable, but to stick around and see what we can do in the long-term, to ’embrace the difficulty’ as we have called it before. It is about positive actions that we can take to help the planet and all its residents, gorillas and humans alike.”

As they point out “a truly responsible form of tourism departs from what problems the local population deals with. And by this we mean what the locals indicate themselves as priorities. It starts from a dialogue, rather than just hopping about and doing what you feel needs to be done.”

Responsible Tourism is about using our industry to address local needs and the international need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and single-use plastic waste which so often reaches our oceans,

L’article Thinking about ecotourism in the Gorilla Highlands est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

With ten modern cabins, a swimming pool, restaurant, bar, and viewing deck with a hot tub; this unique boat experience will take you on a luxury tour in the mild equatorial montane climate. Escape to the onboard wellness center as the boat lays up alongside one of the most biodiverse ecozones of the world – the Albertine rift montane forests. In addition to guided hikes and bird watching, we provide insight into the quaint Rwandan villages through a variety of interactions based on culture and cuisine.

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This intimate houseboat boasts a local staff complement, enabling us to curate an exceptional experience for each guest and at the same time provide a much-needed income to the local community. In line with Mantis’ community and conservation pillars; the Kivu Queen has been created to add value to the environment and communities of Lake Kivu.

As reported by Travel Weekly, the journey of the Mantis Kivu Queen uBuranga will start in Rubavu, in the north of Rwanda, sailing past the island of Idjwi to pay respect to pygmy tribes. It will then stop by a tea and coffee estate run by local farming cooperatives for a tour and tasting. Some of the amenities proposed are guided hikes, bird-watching and excursions to picturesque Rwandan villages.

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Lake Kivu is a 90km-long freshwater lake that lies along Africa’s Great Rift Valley and is lined with pretty fishing villages. With crystal clear, clean waters, it is a beautiful destination with no hippos or crocodiles, also making it one of the safest lakes in Africa.

The Kivu Queen is solar powered and equipped with advanced waste-management and heating systems. It is meant to support the communities of Lake Kivu while caring for the environment.

L’article A ‘floating hotel’ will open on Lake Kivu, Rwanda est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.