Popular American TV talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres, described her experience trekking the gorillas as life changing.

"Spending time with these gorillas changed my life. Thank you to everyone who is helping Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund,” Ellen wrote on Twitter.

Ellen was in Rwanda as part of activities to kick off the building of a gorilla research centre, dubbed The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund,

The centre is a birthday gift Ellen received from her long-term partner, Portia De Rossi. In March, during The Ellen Show, she spoke about how she was looking forward to building the campus in Rwanda. The centre will be the permanent home in Rwanda for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Rwanda welcomed the initiative, pledging support to Ellen so that her goal of helping protect the gorillas is achieved.

The organisation has been extensively working to protect the endangered mountain gorillas for the past 50 years.

While in Rwanda, Ellen and Portia met with President Kagame and visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial among other activities.

After trekking up the Virunga mountains Ellen shared a video of her experience.

"I can’t begin to describe what this experience was like, or how much it means to me. I’m so grateful,” she said.

The one minute video had over half a million views by Thursday morning. Her fans were amazed too.