Beneath the trees of Congo’s forests lives a gentle giant. This is the Eastern Lowland Gorilla, also known as Grauer’s Gorilla. At 440 pounds, you’d think the Eastern Lowland gorilla would have few things to worry about. Well, that’s far from the case.

There’s only so much a gorilla can do to survive, and some threats just can’t be solved by beating your chest and scaring it off.

For a couple of decades now, the historical range of Grauer’s gorillas has declined pretty significantly. Civil unrest, poaching, and land development have all posed problems for the species. Now, they’re critically endangered and only inhabit 13% of their historical range.

This means more and more of their habitat is starting to overlap with developed regions, like here.

In this part of Congo, some roads pass through the gorilla’s rainforest home.

Grauer’s gorillas are closely related to the more recognizable Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei). The two gorilla species seem to have split off genetically, some time around 10,000 years ago.

Only a few thousand of Grauer’s gorillas still live in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and this camera crew is about to see a few of them.

Cameraman Gordon Buchanan narrates the scene as it unfolds. He and several others watch this road in the DRC when a sole Silverback comes out from the brush. He’s the backbone of the troop. But where there’s one gorilla, there’s probably several more. Like every other gorilla species, Grauer’s gorillas tend to move in family groups.

The silverback is keeping an eye out for the traffic to stop.

He needs to escort his troop across the road, and can’t seem to get a clear opening to do so.

This one has a name. He’s Chimanuka, a silverback that UNESCO, BBC, and even NatGeo have been following for years now..

Chimanuka spends a full 20 minutes waiting for the vehicles to stop.

Wanting to help the critically endangered giant, Lambert runs over to signal the cars to stop. The rest of them sit back and wait until the gorilla notices. Like a certain Disney movie’s soundtrack said: beneath the shelter of the trees, only love can enter here.

Well, nothing could have prepared Gordon and his crew for what happened next.

Our silverback from earlier crosses, and a few young gorillas follow behind him. It’s well known that every Gorilla species is social and can form large groups, but this was still surreal to witness.

After the first 4 or 5 other gorillas followed, then came a 6th, and a 7th, and an 8th. There were a dozen or so in this troop the whole time. This silverback really had his work cut out for him.

And to think that there used to be twice as many of these gorillas in Congo.

It’s time to pick up the cameras and head off.

Today was a fruitful day, and Gordon is one of the lucky people who gets to see these things in person. Gordon’s footage of the whole scene is sitting at 38 million views on YouTube.

Conservation organizations, like the WWF, are helping to protect Congo’s gorillas and reclaim some of their range. Hopefully, Chimanuka will live to see more of his kind.

Watch the incredible moment below!

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Source: Bornfree.org, BBC Earth on YouTube, WWF, Roy et al. 2014 in Royal Society Publishing