When a tourist came face to face with a gorilla in the wild African jungle, she counted her last breaths until the most shocking thing happened. Victoria was on a jungle expedition with her husband Damien in search of two special gorillas she had never met before. Then the unexpected happened. A loud explosion was heard, and she was launched into a ravine, leaving her battered and disoriented on the jungle floor. She looked around at the dense jungle around her and couldn’t help but feel watched.
The hair on the back of her neck stood high, scanning the bush line. She tried to see what it was, but the mysterious bush stared back. She screamed, but she couldn’t hear herself at all. There was just the high-pitched ringing from the explosion. Eventually, gravity wasn’t strong enough to keep her body moving. She had landed on a flat portion of the jungle floor. She slowly tried to orient herself on her surroundings, the sunlight fluttering through the umbrella of trees above her, until suddenly it was gone.
Instead, there was a giant shadow just looming over her body. She desperately tried to see what it was through her hazy vision, only to see the black mass. Thinking it was just a big cloud passing over, she closed her eyes. But then she felt it softly but consistently. There was hot air hitting her neck, paired with the rhythmic sounds of breathing.
She realized that it wasn’t a cloud at all, but rather a creature. The giant black shadow was standing over her and breathing heavily. Petrified, Victoria tried with everything inside of her not to react. She could feel each beat of her heart in her neck, and with each pulse, she got more nervous. What was the creature doing? Why was it standing over her like this? Her mind flashed back to all of the nature shows she had watched at home. The one persistent piece of advice shared was that when faced with a dangerous creature, try and play dead.
So she did just that. She lay as still as possible and breathed as slowly as she could. The creature was investigating her body, and suddenly its face was in hers. She was desperate not to open her eyes, but intrigue got the better of her. She snapped her eyes open and found herself staring right into a pair of deep brown eyes staring right back. Frightened, she lost control and let out a massive scream. Standing over her was a massive gorilla.
Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she would be so close to one. True, they had gone on this very expedition to see gorillas, partly because of her husband’s conservatory foundation, but never did she ever imagine that she would get so close to one. She was sure that she was going to just see one from afar. This was taking things to a whole new level. The scream was not received well by the gorilla. It took a huge step back and started pacing up and down next to where Victoria was lying.
This just made her more anxious. How was she meant to get herself out of this very situation? She was petrified that the gorilla would strike her before she had a chance to move. While she respected the majestic animal, she wasn’t naive to the damage they could do when they’re angry. Victoria tried desperately to move her body. Standing up was not an option; every part of her body screamed at her when she tried. So instead, she tried to roll away. But as she tried, another scream escaped her lips. It all hurt far too much, coupled with the intense fear she was feeling, left her hopeless.
Then the most terrifying thing happened. She watched on in horror as the gorilla approached her quite quickly. It seemed agitated by all her whimpering and screaming. It walked straight up to her and reached out with its arms. Victoria braced herself for the worst. She felt the gorilla’s hands tentatively scoop under her back, and then in one fell swoop, it picked her up and hugged her body to its own. The intense heat of the gorilla’s body met with hers. Its coarse hair on its chest roughly rubbed up against her neck. The gorilla then tried to walk with her in this hold, only to drop her slightly, realizing that it wasn’t working.
The gorilla decided to lop her over its shoulder, slung like a bag of potatoes over the creature’s giant body. The gorilla found its balance and began to walk away from where Victoria had landed just moments earlier. The tears began to pour down her face. With each step the gorilla took, she was distraught at the fact that the animal was taking her further away. She was sure her husband would have found her if she had been left where she had landed.
That is if he made it out okay. The gorilla marched on, making its way skillfully through the dense jungle. The humid, damp plants rubbed up against Victoria’s face as they walked. She couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening to her. It felt like a dream. She tried to look around her to see if she recognized anything, but who was she trying to fool? Everything looked the same. This wasn’t a landscape she was very familiar with, after all. When she tried to move and get out of the gorilla’s grip, it seemed the gorilla knew exactly what she was trying to do because instead of getting a fright and letting go, the gorilla just bore down, tightening its grip on her body.
Its strength was insane, something she had never encountered before in her life. She felt like she was caught in a vice. The gorilla moved on confidently, as if it was purposely going to a destination. Unsure of what to think, Victoria just held on for dear life, while praying that wherever they were going, it wasn’t going to be to her death. Suddenly, they broke through some dark green hanging vines to an open space lush with some shallow, thick bushes.
What Victoria saw there brought a giant gasp right out. Dotted all over the bushes was gorilla after gorilla. They were peacefully gathering food from the bushes around them and eating away. The mother gorillas were happily grooming their babies, while others ran around playing the fool. Victoria couldn’t help but think how much she might have enjoyed this site if she hadn’t arrived at this moment. It’s one thing to enjoy something without being too close to it.
For some reason, being closer to more gorillas gave her a sense of security. This was ironic considering how much fear she should have been feeling, but the nest of gorillas was peaceful and calm, quite like she wasn’t there at all. That is of course until the gorilla dropped her off on the floor with searing pain. She slowly got herself up in a seating position and quietly waited to see what would happen next. The gorilla that had captured her stood back and looked at her.
Victoria felt like she could see concern on the gorilla’s face. This was insane to her. Surely these creatures only worried about their own. Why was it focused on her like this? She had never known an animal to look at humans like this before. She was so focused on the gorilla in front of her that she hadn’t noticed those around her until she decided to look around and was surprised. The gorillas in the nest had happily abandoned their chores and games to look at her. Some were even brave enough to come closer to her.
Oddly enough, through this encounter, she found herself calming down a little. They all seemed to be gently natured in some way or another. But she was hoping that it would just stay that way. She really didn’t want to experience this up close. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t an option for them. For them, they just received something to obsess over for the next few hours, much to Victoria’s dismay. She scanned the nest, looking for a way out, but saw nothing.
She struggled to imagine a scenario where she’d be able to escape this horrid situation she found herself in. She studied the gorillas around her and realized that they were all probably females. They were grooming their babies and taking turns feeding them. As much as she expected them to be quite defensive and aggressive towards her, this wasn’t the case at all. Putting it down to the fact that she was brought in by another gorilla, she welcomed the lack of aggression. The adrenaline inside her was pumping relentlessly, though. She could feel the intense pulsing through her body.
Her fight-or-flight instinct was in overdrive. Her head began to spin, and she felt sick to her stomach. Suddenly, it was dark. When she awoke, she found herself quite comfortable, lying on some big lush leaves. The gorilla that had brought her there was sitting at her head, gently plucking through her hair, looking for parasites. Before remembering where she was, she couldn’t help but feel an intense sense of calm. But when she flashed back to reality, she felt panicked all over again. After all, there was a grown beast touching her hair while she could barely move. It wasn’t like anyone else would be calm in such a situation.
She tried to employ her basic breathing techniques from her yoga class, inhale two three, out two three, over and over again. While she breathed, she looked around and found self calming substantially. Looking beyond the fear, she couldn’t help but feel warm inside. The gorilla family really seemed to love one another, despite their reputation for being big and scary. They were, in fact, quiet and seemed peaceful in nature. Closing her eyes softly, Victoria tried to remember what her husband had told her about gorillas. He was personally obsessed with the impressive creatures.
He would drone on and on about them for hours. So much so that unfortunately, she hadn’t quite listened as much as she should have. But following her gut, she couldn’t help but feel safe. The gorilla that had brought her here had every chance to hurt her but had chosen not to. She couldn’t help but trust that the more Victoria relaxed into the peaceful nature of the gorilla nest, the more enjoyable it slowly became. Naturally, the persistent thought of how she was going to escape bugged her insistently, but she tried not to focus on it too much.
She felt helpless when she thought about it. A part of her prayed sincerely that her husband had survived along with the rangers. Maybe then they would find her, and she wouldn’t need to find an escape. More and more younger gorillas began to come closer to her, slowly, each taking their turns to sniff her and prod at her feet. They were extremely intrigued by her and felt safe, thanks to the big gorilla at her head. Then it escalated to a point that she’d never expected. The young gorillas laid down next to her and began to cuddle up, showering her with affection.
This was unique to anything she’d ever seen before, even after all the hours of watching National Geographic. It was crazy. It felt like she was being cuddled by a group of children. They behaved like them too. One minute they were friendly and affectionate, and the next they were fooling around, jumping over her legs and pulling at her jacket. There was no other explanation for it. They were giving her love and affection. She could hardly believe it. Meanwhile, Damien was beside himself with grief and worry. He and the rangers had fallen out of the projectile jeep but landed safely not too far off.
When he couldn’t spot Victoria, his heart had sunken tremendously. Where had she gone? Surely she couldn’t have gone too far. He and the rangers spanned out in a wide radius around where the jeep had been hit. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an unusual occurrence. There were active landmines all over the jungle, thanks to the jungle terrorists that hung out there. They liked to remind the locals that they had weaponry and weren’t afraid to use it. Most of the time though, the landmines didn’t catch cars. It was the first they had ever experienced such a severe hit.
High and low, they looked for signs of Victoria until Damien heard a call deep into the bush. Crashing through the greenery, he followed the sound of the ranger’s voice. Sure enough, as he caught up, he noticed Victoria’s hat. It was lying bloody on the floor with an imprint of her body on the muddy floor. It didn’t take a tracker for them to see that she’d been there. The question was, where was she now? They looked for footprints but found nothing. That is until one ranger noticed the gorilla prints. Based on how old they were, they could tell that a gorilla had been there and left. This discovery made Damien extremely nervous. The only explanation for the gorilla prints and a lack of hers and her not being present meant that the gorilla had taken her. This was highly concerning.
He had no idea what state she was in, and he couldn’t understand why the gorilla had taken her body along. What was its intention? The only way they could find out was to trace the gorilla prints and follow its path. The other rangers caught up with their rifles, and slowly they began to follow the tracks that had been left behind by the gorillas. With each step, Damien couldn’t help but grow more and more nervous at what he might find. As they got closer, the rangers began to talk in their native tongue. It was rapid and sounded quite serious. Frustrated with not being able to understand what was being said, he stopped walking and asked them straight.
They looked at each other quietly before responding. They recognized these prints. It was from a female gorilla that struggled to give birth to its babies. Had she taken Victoria to surrogate? They also indicated that the way the prints were going was actually towards a big gorilla nest they were aware of but had never gone near. If they were right, they were about to enter a nest of over 12 gorillas all securely bunched with one another. As they broke through the thick bush and through a blanket of vines, they found themselves confronted with a scene that they could have never imagined. Sure enough, it was the very nest they thought it was.
The gorillas were all over, some tumbling, while others happily lay on their backs. This wasn’t the highly surprising part though. Instead, there was a woman lying on a bed of lush leaves being pampered by the gorillas. A big female was going through her hair, while some youngsters kept tickling her and cuddling her clothes.
When Damien spotted his wife getting so much love from the gorillas, his heart swelled with pride. How wonderful it was to be able to experience firsthand the beautiful nature of gorillas. In fact, Damien felt that he would have killed to be in her shoes.
He called out to Victoria to let her know they were there. He wanted to capture the moment, but he’d lost his phone when the jeep crashed. When Victoria heard her husband’s voice, she felt a huge wave of stress relief from her body in a giant sigh. She knew now that she was going to be just fine. Damien slowly crawled to Victoria and the other gorillas. He kept his head low, showing submission, and when he got up close, his heart fell for his wife.
She was clearly very hurt. They hadn’t anticipated this. Slowly, he hooked his hands underneath her tender body and lifted her up, almost as if knowing that he was the right person to take her away. The gorilla sat back and looked on affectionately. It was like they knew he was going to take her and help her get better. Victoria watched closely as she was carried away. The gorillas looked back at her in a daze. She was grateful to them for looking after her and showering her with love in a difficult time. Her whole opinion on gorillas had changed completely.
This was an animal she was going to advocate for for the rest of her life. She had no doubt about that. The next day, the team went back to the gorilla’s nest, and sure enough, they managed to finally find the two gorillas that Damien had revered four years earlier. They had become part of the group. This time, Victoria was neither scared nor terrified of the huge male gorillas. As Damien approached them, they gurgled at him in a friendly tone.
They showed the couple no hostility whatsoever but instead welcomed them with open arms, quite literally. In fact, one of the gorillas took a special interest in Victoria. The two shared a few heartwarming moments together of hugs and cuddles. This time, the team was prepared, and they managed to capture this amazing encounter on camera.
The video went viral overnight, and to this day, people all over the world are in disbelief at how beautiful the interaction had been. What an incredible story. How would you have reacted to the gorilla picking you up? Was Damien right to trust the gorillas and film his wife to share on the internet? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
