Freya Aspinall's journey to rewild gorillas in Congo | Aspinall Foundation

[Music] when i'm with the animals i'm one of them i'm in their world this is me being with a tiger it's always been normal for me she might bite but i just have to react calm i've been able to develop completely natural relationships there's no training there's no taming just pure love and trust the aspirant foundation has rewilded over 300 animals to this day we're the only people in the world that send gorillas back to the wild my father grew up with animals they became like friends to him just like they have with me they're like an extended part of our family i've learned so many things from my dad but i think the main one would probably be the respect you have for an animal and you're always an equal with an animal and you should never try and test that i'm on my way to the congo with my 17 year old daughter freya it'll be the first time that she's ever seen grillers in the wild how far we were from the gorillas i think we're about two hours finally after an exhausting journey we arrived in our reserve in the congo and it wasn't long before freyja and the grillers met for the first time little massa and luka leila two orphan gorillas [Music] as soon as the girls felt comfortable around me i slowly became a friendly figure to them they then became very excited and treated me like one of them which means a lot of rough gorilla play [Music] [Music] that's hysterical giggles once the gorillas calmed down and relaxed they became much more affectionate and we slowly started bonding and building a relationship so this is to see these two beautiful orphan gorillas whose families have been slaughtered by poachers relax and play with prayer brought me great joy i just want everyone to see how amazing it is here and how amazing like seeing gorillas are in the wild it's where they belong it's completely 100 where they belong easy yeah super easy anyway guys and the following morning the most amazing thing happened during breakfast some friends came to see us this is the first time i'd ever seen anything like this the gorillas came from the forest to come and see their new friend freya there's no question in my mind that these two beautiful grillers have come to see freya these are the chocolate ones we wanted to get them back out into the forest for obvious reasons but they would not go unless freya went with them and after some time and a little bit of difficulty freya led the tribe back into the forest it was clear to me that all the grillers wanted to do was to get their friend and play again in the forest and it was wonderful to see the smile on everyone's faces including the gorillas [Music] playtime playtime rough and tumble it was such fun [Music] okay keep going don't step then it was a little bit of silliness back to camp he's fallen in twice by the way we were a little sad because we weren't expecting to see the gorillas again they were out in the forest and we were heading back home i nearly died i was drowning [Music] so this is the river that i saved my daughter's life no i saved your life it's not the way i remember it and just around the corner is a 70-foot waterfall and then something extraordinary happened something i'd never seen before the gorillas came to say goodbye to their friend [Music] it was incredibly emotional they clearly didn't want freya to leave what i would hope for my generation to see from this is that animals belong in the wild and rewilding are so important and if animals are stuck in captivity we must do everything we can to rewire them i cannot imagine a better way to end our trip it was wonderful to see the gorillas so happy and it was a joy to see freyja and the grillers make their bond together

Channel: The Aspinall Foundation

Views: 321,134

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Id: q4lJzSUwT4o

Length: 5min 14sec (314 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 13 2021