ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Rwanda sits in Central Africa, measuring around 10,000 square miles. Its mountainous landscape has earned the country its nickname, the Land of a Thousand Hills.

The mountain gorilla is one of four sub-species of gorillas. They roam the dense jungles of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spending most of their time at high elevations foraging for food. With just 1,000 mountain gorillas alive today, the animals remain endangered. Illegal poaching, disease, habitat loss, and the effects of war and civil unrest in the region continue to pose a great threat to these animals.

Rwanda is an agricultural nation, and farmland surrounds the Virunga Mountains where the gorillas live. Farmers depend on the land for their livelihoods, creating a delicate balance between the people and the gorillas whose habitat has been encroached upon. One of the first things you notice on a trek is the proximity of the cultivated land and the jungle – in many areas, just a small rock wall separates the two. The gorillas will often emerge from the forest and roam across the farmland. The government reinvests proceeds from tourism activities into these local communities to show the people that they can also benefit from sharing the land with the gorillas.

While it is not easy, and may not be perfect, Rwanda's effort serves as an example that we can and should continue to work to coexist with the wildlife around us.

Here, a young boy takes a pause to think as he watches over his family's cattle on the fringe of the rainforest of Volcanoes National Park.

AUTHOR
Eric's interest in photography began when his parents gave him an old film camera to use for his course in high school. While the class initially served as an escape from his rigorous biology and chemistry courses, it would eventually become the catalyst for each of his interests and passions melding into one. The film process revealed the "magic" of how science and technology could immortalize a scene in front of him. With this, his creative side would soon be unlocked.

Eric earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Wake Forest University. He enjoyed his courses in physiology, molecular biology, and genetics, but it was ecology that grabbed his attention. The idea that life, across species and geographies, is intertwined resonated with him long after his classes concluded.

This concept has driven much of Eric's travel and work to date. He seeks to explore new cultures, new areas of the world, and unique wildlife with the hope that his images can deliver that same empowering idea to others that he felt in his studies — that we can all share some connection and hold interest in other people and living things, even when the link might not be apparent.

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