This past summer, Victoria Aspinall had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter during a trip to a national park.
Last year, Victoria married Damian Aspinall, an English conservationist who heads the John Aspinall Foundation. The goal of the organization is to bring endangered species back from the brink of extinction and “return them to the wild where possible.â€
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In June, Victoria and Damian traveled to Gabon and watched as a group of young gorillas was transferred from a sanctuary to their new home at Batéké Plateau National Park.
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And it was during that trip that Victoria had that amazing encounter we mentioned earlier.
She and her husband met up with two western lowland gorillas, male cousins who were bred at a wildlife park operated by Damian’s foundation.
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They’d been released into the wild 14 years earlier, but obviously still had a soft spot for homo sapiens, as you’ll see in the video below.
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“Coming face to face with Ima and Djalta was pretty scary at first but ended up being the most beautiful and humbling experience, and one which I will never forget,†Victoria said later. “The work of the Aspinall Foundation in breeding endangered species in captivity and then, wherever possible, sending them safely back to their native homelands is amazing.”
“I hope that watching these gorillas, happy and free, will inspire those who believe as we do that the place for wildlife is in the wild wherever possible rather than in captivity.”
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Watch Victoria’s amazing encounter with the gorillas in the video below, and share to support the incredibly important and invaluable work of the Aspinall Foundation!
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