POPULAR American television host and comedian, Ellen DeGeneres has urged the millions in her audience to visit the East African nation, describing it as an amazing country with amazing people.
DeGeneres visited Rwanda in June, where she met president Paul Kagame, before setting up the Ellen DeGeneres Campus that will support conservation of mountain gorillas.
In a video posted on her Twitter account, DeGeneres shared clips from her trip including experiences of feeding a giraffe and meetings with the endangered mountain gorillas.
DeGeneres, who was vacationing with her partner Portia, also made a stop in Kenya and she described her experience at the famed Giraffe Manor, where clients are promised an opportunity to have breakfast with a herd of resident Rothschild’s giraffe.
‘The giraffe was cute, but it ate so much, the bill for breakfast was $400,’ joked DeGeneres.
The manor provides guests with snacks to feed the giraffes right from the breakfast or dining table.
Encounter with gorillas
In Rwanda, DeGeneres and her entourage were fortunate to encounter the mountain gorillas twice. The 60 year entertainer in June said the experience ‘changed my life’.
In the nearly 6 minute clip shared on Tuesday, DeGeneres described the awesome feeling of being very close to the gorillas, highlighting the resourcefulness of the guides who ensure the safety of the tourists.
‘The gorilla bumps my sister-in-law as it goes past her. I was scared but I was jealous, because I want to be bumped by a gorilla,’ said DeGeneres.
Mountain gorillas are one of the world’s most endangered species, which survives on the forest-cloaked volcanoes of central Africa.
In June, authorities announced that their numbers have increased by a quarter to over 1,000 individuals since 2010.
The Ellen DeGeneres Campus, which was first announced on Ellen’s 60th birthday as a gift from her partner Portia, will be dedicated the late Dian Fossey’s work in Rwanda.
Dian Fossey was an American primatologist and conservationist who studied gorillas in Rwanda and the wider Virunga region from 1966 until her death in 1985.