A traffic accident put Zhou Donglin's rising real estate career on hold, changed her outlook, and sent her on a soul-searching journey into the heart of nature.

The woman in her 30s from East China's Zhejiang province exudes a laid-back vibe that belies her thrilling experiences up hill and down dale, chasing the mind-boggling power of love and the lives of wild creatures.

Zhou is traveling during Spring Festival in Uganda, attempting to capture precious images of mountain gorillas through her lens.

"I plan to spend 20 days exploring western and central Africa, zooming in on the creature that has a very small population but shares 98 percent similar genes with human beings," Zhou says.

Her interest in the subject was inspired by a meeting with internationally renowned British primatologist Jane Goodall, 90, at the China Wildlife Image and Video Competition in Beijing in December.

"Her lifelong devotion to chimpanzees is admirable and piqued my curiosity about other great apes," she says.

So far, Zhou has hiked through the tropical rainforest with help from a hired guide and keeps close tabs on mountain gorillas with distinctive silver backs.

"I enjoy delving into animal communities and have tried to tell their tales of kinship, friendship, life and death, and competition. If these stories can move the audience and touch their hearts, they will come to love animals. This love will, in turn, inspire them to protect nature," Zhou says.

In December, Zhou's photography work highlighting an upland buzzard sacrificing itself to protect its chicks from a snow leopard on a precarious cliff stood out from the more than 37,600 nature-themed image and video submissions from across the world. It also won the hearts of the judging committee at the China Wildlife Image and Video Competition awards ceremony hosted by the Chinese National Geography in Beijing.

The photo was shot in the Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

"I was in awe of the bird's maternal instincts. It could have put up a good fight, which might have chased the leopard off," Zhou recalls.

It wasn't until she saw the chicks were hidden under the bird that she understood how the fight would expose the babies. "It was purely tragic and soul-stirring the way she sacrificed herself without protest," Zhou says.