Scale a map of the African continent to a sheet of printer paper, and you’d find that the habitat area of the mountain gorilla is smaller than a penny. It’s this question of land that stands at the heart of why these animals remain endangered today. Over 100,000 people live in areas surrounding the gorillas’ habitat, and the cultivation of the terrain has led this already confined habitat to shrink over time. Poaching, civil war, and disease have also contributed to the deaths of these magnificent creatures.

Having learned the importance of setting when photographing mountain gorillas the previous year, I spoke with my guides early this November morning to express my interest in a family positioned in a less obstructed area. Thick, verdant foliage often conceals the broader scene, making it difficult to convey the impressive landscape that inspired the name of this subspecies.

We arrived at the Kwitonda family to find them eating plants along the rock wall separating the farmland from the jungle. While cultivated land wasn’t what I originally had in mind as “open space,” I soon realized this was the story that needed to be told. As the squeeze is placed on an already delicate space, scenes like this are becoming more commonplace. Animals previously considered mythical figures of the jungle are now roaming across land maintained by humans.

Life that stands very much on the fringe.