Gorillas Surviving In The Jungle Mountains | Gorillas In The Mountain Mist | Real Wild

[Music] the mountain gorillas where it comes from people used to celebrate a land of fiery beauty of dramatic natural riches and ancient traditions [Music] but recently it's home has been wrecked by poverty and war when Rwanda suffers the mountain gorillas suffers too but there is hope maybe just maybe a mountain gorillas can hold [Music] they call it the land of a Thousand Hills near here is the place where humans first walked the earth rwanda is the heart of africa on its border with uganda and what was at the time of this story is a year now the democratic republic of congo other Virunga mountains this is the rwanda that hit the headlines when civil war broke out in 1994 a country of genocide refugees terror and lots but remain bar soon a Belgian diplomat knew another Rwanda a country of peace beauty warm friendship and irresistible challenges when he first arrived back in 1966 remain thought he would stay only three years so he wasted no time and set about exploring the volcanoes with his wife outlet and daughter Anne first the two active ones just over the Zaya border a keen cameraman remain hauled his heavy equipment up every single peak [Music] little did he realize what precious footage that camera would record for remain was destined to document intimately - of Rwanda 'he's most closely guarded secrets the first a group of tribal people who even so late in the 20th century very few Outsiders had ever met the behemoth remain was the first to film them neither he nor they could know then that he would also be the last but it was to the Virunga mountains that remain first turned for adventure having visited the active volcanoes remain then organized treks to explore the thick cloud forests on the slopes of Rwanda six dormant volcanoes once about six thousand feet he and the porters would occasionally catch a tantalizing glimpse of one of the shy giants that lived there [Music] at the time Dian Fossey who inspired the film gorillas in the mist had barely begun her fieldwork otherwise very few people had ever ventured into the jungle in search of the gorillas nevermind attempted to film so remain became something of a self-taught expert if you want to approach the gorillas and you want to have an open contact you must announce your presence before you arrived to the gorillas and the best way to do that is to imitate some contentment vocalizations like if you do that that means that at that moment also the gorillas do that in the group when they are kind to each other when they are not afraid when they are happy when they are lying in the Sun remain wasn't always this knowledgeable when he began his quest to film gorillas there was precious little information available and he inevitably made mistakes and mistakes may force the dominant male the silverback to charge when I met for the first time a mountain gorilla it was a small baby so I taught by myself oh it looks so nice so why must I be afraid suddenly when the female arrived yeah when the familiar ifit's already more bigger because a female it's around 200 pounds so we we were not we were not at all ease but I must say that the first time that you meet gorillas you feel really not good they look so powerful especially the the the Silverbacks because a silverback weighs around 400 pounds so if he want he can do everything with you and we must not forget that in fact they are always wild animals and of all wild animals the silverback demands respect if he doesn't get it if he feels the safety of his family is at risk in any way he must react as remain found out for himself when he somehow upset the mighty silverback who lumen silverback charts me when Iced I stopped filming romaine knew that running away would only provoke undue may further but in fact the most important thing is not to move I have never got real problems sometimes he gives you a small club or he can touch your arm or he can hit you so all these things are normal and in fact we were always lucky because you can understand gorillas so powerful animal if he really want to hit you or if really he want to to take you or to catch you at a moment or to beat you at that moment it can become really very very terrible but at that moment if the silverback charts the first thing to do is to stay very calm and to lie on the ground and to show to him that he is the leader you must not forget that when gorillas start charging that in fact I think 90% it's only blood as long as there was no doubt about who was in charge the gorillas accepted remain and they could all relax remain knew his place literally in the relationship with the gorillas is better never to to take the position to stand upright because it means to have a dominant position it means that you start considering the gorillas as lower animal it's better to take the seated position that you are at the same high level if you do that you cannot have any problem once he was confident enough romaine took friends with him passing on his top tips keep low don't stare back don't run and that submissive these days gorilla watching is a popular treat for tourists but in the past it was almost unheard of [Music] the world is only just beginning to get to know mountain gorillas and the gorillas were just beginning to get to know people the best way to learn the gorillas trust is to mirror their behavior except for one thing chest-beating if you want to imitate chest-beating it becomes really very dangerous because chest-beating for the gorillas it's a signal of alarm so if you start to do that all the gorillas will be surprised while you are doing that if something wrong with you or if something wrong with others remains patients was paying off after months of watching waiting and learning he was now able to film the gorillas at their most intimate their most relaxed the extent to which they trusted him became clear when one day something extraordinary happened when the fame arrived and take me a little bit in her arms so that was the first time and that never happens again only one time in 15 years that I filmed the mountain gorillas it happened only 1 times that a female took me in her arms like that yeah it was for me one of the most fantastic things that ever happened in my life and I can never forget that feeling because it it it was really so natural of course I am also very happy happy after when I saw the film and when I saw the pictures that I didn't touch the gorillas and that I didn't do the same with her you know when you are in the world like that you are not in a circus and you have to respect the the basic rules of wildlife but I can never forget the feelings because that female really considered me like her brother so so nice and she could even do anything with me because also a female like that 15 years old is already very powerful and also you must not forget even if sometimes gorillas are very kind they are always wild animals the first thing that came up in my mind was at that moment the silverback could charge us in guerrilla groups the single mature silverback tolerates only immature males called black backs near his female other Silverbacks are seen as a threat romaine had no idea how the silverback ever-vigilant will react the silverback cannot know anything about me because I am NOT of course a black back I am a human so a third moment anything was possible and yes it's quite possible that the silverback could become jealous and who charged me yes why not but the silverback chose to ignore him and so too eventually did she but at that moment the relationship was already very very very nice with the silverback and I think the silverback consider us as one of the family from knowing nothing about the mountain gorillas other than that they existed remain became one of the first people ever to get close-up footage of this greatest of the great apes he filmed every aspect of mountain gorilla life from rest as recently as the 19th century gorillas were believed to leap down from trees and throttle people with their bare hands was this gentle ape really the inspiration for the film King Kong Karenna games like children's games have agreed rules but rules can be broken by lowering the branch for example the first biologist who tried to study them in the wild locked himself into a cage in the forest so fearsome was the gorillas reputation gorillas have got better things to do than tear men limb from limb like nothing for entertaining themselves this youngster seems lost in a fantasy world all her own but her long-suffering playmate just wants time out playing with others is much more fun the wide open mouthed play face shows they mean no harm which is crucial when spirits get high and gentle wrestling escalates into ruffington [Music] few filmmakers have the privilege of shots like these [Music] [Music] they're padded feet and hands are too soft to slice through flag stems so the trampled vegetation doesn't suffer any long-term damage [Music] unlike the huge heavy adults who spend most of their time on the ground youngsters are light and agile enough to climb trees to feed and play as far as they're concerned they live in one vast Massey gymnasium complete with grassy crash mats to cushion the tumbles being a gorilla is about being with other gorillas their social groups are more stable than those of the other great apes unlike chimpanzees and orangutans gorillas may stay together for many years the 200 or so different species of plants on which the gorillas feed including vines wild celery thistles fruits ferns and bamboo shoots grow thickly here thanks to the rich fertile soil mixed with ash left by the long since extinguished Virunga volcanoes six volcanoes McKenna kara Simbi desoky Sabino Jahangir and Maha Bua lie on the Rwandan side of the Virunga chain but these ancient Giants the highest nearly fifteen thousand feet are merely dozing one eye half open quiet for now they may wake again with fresh fire in their bellies barely five miles away in Congo younger volcanoes still smolder and spit when one erupted in 1977 romaine took his camera as close to its bleeding call as he did [Music] [Music] [Music] as the molten lava seeps down the volcano's flanks it crusts over to form a brand new landscape as soon as the sulfurous furnace cools plants race to colonize the soil not on the heels of the flora comes the fauna such as the congressman it was volcanic upheavals some 2 million years ago that filled the acog ear a depression in the northwest with water cooling lava created gigantic natural dams forcing rivers to overflow into flood plains many of which are now filled in with sediment today the Akagi reforms rwanda x' biggest national park covering 1/10 of the country surface about nine hundred and sixty-five square miles and wherever vast herds of vegetarians gathered so to to the carnivores [Music] there are more buffaloes in a tag era than any other large mammal and there's a lot of meat and a well grazed Buffalo a calf or perhaps a weak adult might be easy [Music] the bull though is heavily armed those magnificent dagger-like horns could Gore a lion to death with a single swipe [Music] job well done the male rejoins the hurry nearby his distant domestic relatives also enjoy special protection by human bodyguards though a disgruntled hippo poses little threat the behemoth in exactly the same way as their ancestors have done for centuries they get everything they need from a single mobile renewable and environmentally friendly schools [Applause] fiercely independent the Bahama hat long resisted Authority and state control shunning contact with the modern world it took remain a long time to be friendly as he recalled the first time when we visited you could not go there by rote or it was very difficult to find them of course the Rwandan television and Rwandan radio they tried to have contacts with them but they always refused because they were not interested in money if you only want to drink milk and to drink blood and you are wearing the skins of your own cows you don't need money like all other pastoral people in East Africa including the Masai the Mahima are attuned to the rhythms of their cattle at first romaine was allowed to film only the young herders neither romaine nor his behemoth friends could possibly anticipate that these scenes would soon become material for the Anthropology archives [Music] at the time Rwanda was as peaceful as the a Kagera River source of the White Nile the Mahima don't eat fish so the fishermen have the extensive waterways to themselves though they sometimes hunt larger animals such as hippos the neon bow fishermen concentrate their efforts mostly on fish as does the Shoebill stork a rare swampland angler the story of a kagura's elephants is one of Conservation's earliest successes these elephants and newcomers a kagura's original small elephant population disappeared but no one knows why the last original elephant was seen in 1961 the elephants that visit Lake ahima today come from a group of about 20 transferred to a Kagera from a savanna region south of Kigali Rwanda is capital in 1975 by 1990 the population had more than doubled Lecky Hema is the largest in a Kagura the biggest in Rwanda is Lake EBU on the Congo border fishing provides a basic living here too it's also the highest lake just below 5,000 feet higher still in the hilly north of the country the lush cool pastures support yet another way of life there are no cattle or fish here instead plenty of fertile land rich enough to support agriculture by farming the land around them and cultivating crops such as potatoes sago and tobacco the people living in the hills have been able to settle down their homes are built to last as long as possible the villagers are permanent enough for a local infrastructure to develop rough roads link them together and to the bigger towns further away there are no roads for the wandering behemoth to follow far from civilization they lead their cattle from pasture to pasture when they stop it's never for very long the behemoth ancestors were probably Neolithic people who when North Africa became to drive followed the Nile South there are Kohli cattle have equally long bloodlines they are depicted in ancient Egyptian art their horns can grow to more than eight feet the longest of any living animal all in all the source of enormous pride vigorous grooming sweeps away dirt but ticks must be plucked off one by one the greatest health hazard for people comes from a far more sinister bloodsucker the mosquito unless treated the disease it carries malaria can kill remain had to help during several months we always visited some remote groups some remote families and in the beginning we could not take any pictures because they never allow that so when we have seen that many of them catched a lot of diseases like malaria we brought some medicine for them and then we become slowly more familiar with them in return the behemot chief and his people extended the hand of friendship to remain they welcomed him into the very heart of their small community having initially been restricted to filming the herders he was now free to film domestic life and customs their few possessions reflect how completely their lives are dominated by Cathy clothes of cowhide and dozens of milk pots even these objects last longer than their hats simple buildings that can be erected wherever there is good grazing dismantled without trace when it's time to move on cattle provide more than skin and moon the cow relaxed and calm suffers no more than a small wound which will be packed with a dressing of mud and grasses blood made into a spongy pudding is the behemoth staple food along with fresh milk some of which is turned into buttermilk and butter cathal provides so much more than food and clothes to the Mahima they meant freedom identity a passport to Rome while the future seemed rosy for the Mahima far away up among the thick vegetation on the slopes of the Vaisakhi volcano the gorillas were already struggling only six hundred mountain gorillas remain in the wild over time the threats they face have changed in the early 1900's zoo collectors wiped out whole families just to capture a single infant which often died itself from the trauma in the past quarter century in spite of international conservation efforts and the work of dedicated researchers like mark Conde ah t-talking here to remain and a friend gorillas have suffered from drastic loss of habitat squeezed into a tiny patch of forest of only 437 square mile [Music] the present is carefree but the future for a newborn is bleak if there is a more immediate danger right in the middle of the forest moochers smells though they're set to catch small antelope the bamboo snares are indiscriminate triggered by the slightest touch they snap shut like handcuffs on the wrists and ankles of passing gorillas the young gorillas on the Left lost his whole hand in one [Music] so did this silverback who was loved to feed himself simple handy [Music] on one extraordinary occasion remain and mark came across one of the poachers owned dogs caught in a snare they couldn't free it immediately because the guerrillas had got there first rather than risk further injury to the dog by disturbing the guerrillas they waited to see what would happen at first the guerrillas were tense and kept their distance then overcome by curiosity the braver ones moved in though anxious to free the dog remain knew that nothing like this had ever been filmed before gorillas like other apes are highly intelligent as tests in captivity show opportunities to watch them cope with a new problem in the wild are rare the dock that we have seen in the tap with all the gorillas around is was of course unique we only have seen at one time and even all the scientific people working during more than ten or more than 15 years in the Virunga volcanoes never have seen that before the gorillas of course were also I am sure very surprised to see a dog in that trap in captivity gorillas can sole the easy problems what on earth would they make of this strange situation having examined the dog from various angles the gorilla seemed to realize that the source of the problem was somehow it's Paul captive gorillas can learn to talk to humans using simple sign language their own communication system is rich in complex subtle gestures we have yet to perceive nevermind translate were these gorillas trying to tell the dog something just as fascinating as how the gorillas did not react in the face of a strange potentially threatening situation they didn't scream hit the dog or even vocalize loudly perhaps because the dog itself remained so remarkably calm what on earth did the gorillas maked at all ape intelligence is a fascinating topic but the dog was suffering as soon as the gorillas got bored mark Candiotti moved into free first though he had to disable the deathtrap exactly what the guerrillas made of it all we'll never know Mark had to handle the dog carefully it had probably been trapped for some hours and was weak and terrified by its ordeal at the hands of all these primates as Mark encouraged the dog to accept its freedom the gorillas observed all what did they understand the fact that we can ask what a gorilla thinks is a sign of our own intelligence but gorillas have evolved brains that serve them well in their world not ours trapped dogs are rare in the life of a wild mountain gorilla finding food by contrast is a daily problem and gorillas have a kind of ecological intelligence they appear to be able to appreciate the passing of the seasons knowing when particular foods such as a favorite fruit will be ready to eat at his prime a silverback such as Moretti is a magnificent creature tall dark and handsome his superb physique is entirely down to what females look for in a mate for a start they want him big and burly his main duties are after all to fend off other silverback protect his family and maintained harmony between them when they are old enough adolescent females leave the group they were born in to join a new Harley they need to be sure they picked the fittest strongest silverback around his looks matter two females prefer physical symmetry and a glossy coat both of which are signs of health because a top quality father will produce strong healthy babies this young male has at least 12 years of growing to do before he reaches Maruti science a fully grown male is a gentle giant up to five feet five tall with an arm span of seven feet and tipping the scales at around five hundred pounds this mechanism of female choice means that the size difference between the sexes is greater than in any other primate all gorillas have a huge potbelly to accommodate the long intestine needed to digest and absorb all that plant food but the one who must eat the most is the silverback up to 60 pounds of greens a day [Music] many plants have a protective coat of painful stings and sharp prickles rather than waste time nibbling at them one by one gorillas learned to fold them up into a sandwich their sharp teeth sliced the food up like dicing vegetables on a chopping board rather than mashing it they're huge cranial crest anchors the massive jaw muscles needed for this [Music] it's like living in the middle of a giant salad bowl there's so much to eat that there's never any fighting over food which is why youngsters have the privilege of growing up in such a peaceful community nothing is missing roots provide fiber young leaves contain protein and water [Music] infants don't begin to eat plant material until they're six months old the fearsome canines are for signaling not feeding breakfast over the silver back leads his family back into the forest they travel in single-file dominant females towards the front those lower in the hierarchy bringing up the rear the older gorillas having filled their vast bellies settle down to some serious digestion but the youngsters can't imagine anything more boring by playing youngsters learn the social rules that make it possible to mix with others it also helps them practice their physical skill and build up muscles just when the future looked brighter than it had for a long time when conservation efforts to save the last few mountain gorillas were making a difference their mountain kingdom fell to pieces in April 1994 the death of President Xavier Amana triggered civil war in Rwanda suddenly the gorillas were more exposed than ever before and remains 30-year love affair with Rwanda was abruptly over we were evacuated in 1994 when the genocide started of course it was one of the hardest moments in our life because we really were considered as Rwandan people as well by the Rwandan as by the Europeans Rwandan fled the violence - in their hundreds of thousands these people were the lucky ones many lost entire families in brutal attacks lucky to survive themselves over the next few months between half a million and a million people were massacred by August a quarter of the pre-war population had either died or fled the country forced to live in squalid refugee camps right at the foot of the volcano on the a year incite big part of the forest has been destroyed because of people to prepare food for cooking they enter in the forest to find wood and they destroyed a lot of trees among the refugees with a behemoth it's a real pity because the Mahima people before they didn't want to accept modern life and they always respect traditional way of living you know that is finished and we can we can tell that it's a Lost Tribe for Humanity so furthered by him of people it's impossible that they can start to live like they were doing before it's a Lost Tribe they cannot start the clock from zero like thirty forty years before I only can hope that peace will come back in the whole region so that Rwanda can become a real paradise like before [Music] within a few short months the Bahamas ancient way of life which had survived intact for centuries was obliterated the war destroyed their identity their community and their traditions one precious unique culture was lost forever would the guerrillas as feared have suffered the same fate the news was better than anyone dared hope most of the guerillas had survived unharmed out of the ashes of Rwanda tragedy here was something to celebrate [Music] today tourists are beginning to return to the virunga's to see the rare mountain gorillas helping to boost the local economy in a way those who are rebuilding Rwanda into the peaceful Eden it was in remains time aleca rulers themselves [Music]

Channel: Real Wild

Views: 843,650

Rating: 4.6533957 out of 5

Keywords: nature documentary, full documentary, documentary movie, cute animals, baby animals, animals attack, big cats, wildlife documentary, english, hd, discovery channel, national geographic, natgeo wild, Nature documentaries - topic, Animals - topic, planet earth, david attenborough, Animals Do The Funniest Things, Animals Do The Cutest Things, Cute Baby Animals, Funny, Animal, Video, Funny Baby Animal Video, Full Animal Documentary, Gorilla Documentary, Silverback gorilla

Id: X8SjuJJowmM

Length: 49min 50sec (2990 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2018