In the heart of Africa,
straddling the borders of Rwanda,
Uganda and Congo,
lies a remarkable mountain kingdom.
It's home to the last 700
mountain gorillas in the world.
With so few left,
they're under constant surveillance
from a dedicated band of humans.
A species in intensive care.
Our cameras have been given
privileged access
to these precious animals
by the people that record
every detail of their lives.
In this programme, we'll be following
some of the youngest
and most vulnerable gorillas.
We witness the plight of two orphans
caught in a brutal civil war.
A young female on the cusp of adulthood,
battling with feelings
she's unable to control.
And a new gorilla king,
struggling to earn the respect
of the group he fought so hard to win.
In these uncertain times,
is the mountain gorilla's future
safe in our hands?
On the volcanic slopes
of the mountains of Rwanda
there has been momentous change.
Titus, the 35-year-old gorilla king,
is dead.
At his peak, he ruled over 25 gorillas
and became the most successful
silverback in recorded history.
Now his reign is over.
The young orphan he protected
has also lost his struggle for life.
Titus was hounded to the point
of exhaustion by a younger silverback,
his son, Rano.
The old ruler simply couldn't fight
any more, slowly fading away,
until finally one morning
he simply didn't wake up,
worn out by life
and his own son.
For Rwandan gorilla researcher
Felix Ndagijimana, it's the end of an era.
Titus was one of my favourite
gorillas, and I guess,
well, he was everybody's favourite,
not only me.
Now that Titus has gone, and Rano
has taken over the group he's, um,
I would say that
he's keeping the group together,
and that's the most important,
but it's really hard
for the individuals in the group
to accept him as the leader,
especially Tuck,
the only female of the group, who had
a very close relationship with Titus.
You can see that the group is not
as close as it used to be
when Titus was still alive.
At just 17 years old,
Rano is the same age as his father was
when he became leader of this group.
But Rano is discovering
that to be a great silverback,
it's not enough just to be the son
of a once great king.
Already, things aren't looking good.
The other gorillas seem reluctant
to accept him as their new leader.
Tuck, the only female in the group,
is on the verge of leaving.
She only stays
because of her young son.
Before Titus's death,
he was a confident four-year-old.
Now he's regressed,
becoming more reliant on his mother.
Tuck is torn between her duty as a parent
and her contempt for Rano.
This is a group in turmoil,
and its leader needs to prove himself.
Can Rano win their confidence
and keep the group together?
Mountain gorillas are a species
in intensive care.
Around 700 remain in the wild,
and everything humanly possible
is done to keep them safe.
The mountain gorilla vets
are a vital part of this effort.
They're dedicated to monitoring
the gorillas' health,
and can be called upon
at a moment's notice.
Magda Braum is one of those vets.
She has worked with apes
for over ten years.
Today, she's travelling
from her base in Rwanda
and crossing the border into Congo,
to the town of Goma.
Congo is home to around
200 mountain gorillas,
about a third of the total population.
A huge country, it was the location
of the Great War of Africa,
a conflict that began in 1998
and involved eight nations
and around 25 armed groups.
Today the war's over,
but eastern Congo,
where the mountain gorillas live,
is still home to many armed rebels.
Today,
I'm going to Congo to check
on Ndeze and Ndakazi,
our two mountain gorilla orphans.
They've been with us
in the temporary facility in Goma,
and Goma is not the right climate,
it's a very crowded place,
we have lots and lots of health problems
because of that.
And we were trying for a long time
to find them a better area,
and finally there is the sanctuary
in Rumangabo.
It's actually exactly the place
where they come from.
We had the call from our vets in Goma
that they had a little bit of a cough,
which is nothing unusual
in this time of year.
So, most likely, it's nothing serious,
but, as I said, we have to be sure
that they are fit for the move.
The hope is that
the two orphaned gorillas
will pass Magda's health check
and be moved from the hot, dusty town
to their new home in the forest.
In the neighbouring country of Uganda,
in a small house
in the middle of the forest,
lives gorilla scientist Martha Robbins.
She has studied mountain gorillas
for 20 years,
the past 12 here in Uganda,
where around 300 mountain gorillas
are found.
Each day, she ventures out into the forest
to observe the gorillas first-hand.
The habitat here is very good
for gorillas.
What makes it so difficult
for us to walk around
is actually great for the gorillas,
because there's herbaceous vegetation
everywhere for the gorillas to eat.
We have much more fruit trees here,
which the gorillas definitely like fruit,
and so that's sort of an added resource
for the gorillas.
Thanks to the work
of people like Martha,
we now know that Ugandan gorillas eat
more fruit than the gorillas in Rwanda,
that they spend more time in the trees,
and that they have larger home ranges.
Martha's dedication
to studying these animals
has allowed her to gain the trust
of one gorilla in particular,
the successful silverback leader Rukina.
He leads a group of 14
that includes six females.
With so many females in his group,
silverback Rukina's life
couldn't be more different
to that of Rano back in Rwanda.
The dominant silverback claims
exclusive rights to the females
and, given the chance,
will mate every few hours.
The junior blackbacks
can only look on.
But for one little gorilla,
the temptation to get involved
is just too great.
Ten-month-old Ponoka
is the youngest in the group,
and although Rukina is probably
his father, he could be pushing his luck.
One in three gorillas die
before three years of age.
The first year is the riskiest.
Martha can't wait for little Ponoka
to reach that milestone.
Although Ponoka is the youngest
in this group,
he's not the newest arrival.
That honour goes
to a young female called Twijiki.
Females often move between groups
to avoid mating with their fathers,
and now, in Rukina's group,
the innocent-looking Twijiki
is about to cause chaos.
In Rwanda, gorilla researcher Felix
is on his way to see
the new silverback leader, Rano.
For Felix, this is a chance
to reacquaint himself
with a gorilla he knew many years ago,
and find out how the new leader
and the old female, Tuck, are getting on.
There's little doubt that
silverback Rano would love
to claim his hard-earned right
to the female in his group.
But at 37 years old, Tuck is
most definitely not interested in sex.
Nearly all females stop
by their mid to late 30s.
Unfortunately,
Rano doesn't know this...
...and keeps trying to impress her
with his displays of strength.
But all this seems to do is make Tuck
more determined to ignore him.
As Rano continues to hound Tuck,
her sons come to her defence.
Now the smallest gorilla
in the group decides
to show the mighty silverback Rano
who's in charge.
This is hardly the great leader
in control.
Pushed around by the youngest male
in the group,
and spurned by Tuck, the only female,
things couldn't get much worse.
Just 40 kilometres away
in the forests of Uganda,
things are stirring for
the eight-year-old female, Twijiki.
She arrived in the group
just two months ago,
and Martha's log shows
that, up until now,
she's been keeping a low profile.
But today she only has eyes for Rukina,
her silverback leader.
The way she's staring at him like that,
that's classic solicitation.
Very subtle, as gorillas are.
She wants to mate.
I'm not sure he does.
Advancing on him,
she tightens her lips
and stares straight into his eyes,
sure signs that she wants to mate.
But Rukina's group contains plenty
of females for him to choose from,
and he doesn't appear
especially interested.
Finally, Rukina relents.
Yep, yep, yep, there you go.
Twijiki's entered a period called oestrus,
a monthly occurrence for gorillas,
and the only time they can get pregnant.
And usually they'll mate
about once an hour.
There we go.
For the next few days,
Twijiki's sole aim will be to mate.
They are very active
in soliciting the males.
So, yeah, it is almost like they're...
It's a different gorilla
from one day to the next,
depending on
if they're in oestrus or not.
Possessed by her hormones,
she turns once more to the silverback,
but he's not interested.
Twijiki will have to look elsewhere.
She decides to try her luck
with the more junior gorillas,
the blackbacks.
Twijiki might not know any better,
but the blackback is only too aware
that if he gets caught,
there'll be trouble.
The dominant silverback holds priority,
and won't put up with
this sort of behaviour.
Despite Rukina's efforts to break up
the young couple's embrace,
sneaky mating does happen.
Genetic tests have revealed
that about 15% of infants are not
fathered by the dominant silverback.
It was a mating like this, between
Ponoka's mother and a blackback,
that Martha saw
before the young Ponoka was born.
Discovering who fathered little Ponoka
is important
if Martha is to understand
the secret world of gorillas.
The only way she can solve this mystery
is with a paternity test.
Oh, yeah, ha-ha!
That would be Ponoka.
Yeah. So, the size of the dung
corresponds to the size of the gorilla.
So we've been looking for some time now
to get the faeces from Ponoka
- and today we succeeded.
- Yeah.
Tiny, tiny, tiny.
Martha will send this sample
to a laboratory,
where Ponoka's genetic profile
will be compared
to that of the silverback, Rukina.
- Do you have the pen?
- Yeah.
OK, great.
In Congo, Magda is getting ready to meet
the two orphaned mountain gorillas,
and check that they are healthy enough
to be moved to their new home.
Ndeze and Ndakazi's stories
began in 2007...
...when six mountain gorillas were killed
in execution-style attacks,
most likely linked
to the illegal charcoal trade.
Two-month-old Ndakazi was found
clinging to the dead body of his mother,
who had been shot
through the back of the head.
Around the same time,
three-month-old Ndeze was discovered
next to his dead mother.
Altogether, five gorillas from his family
had been killed,
including the once mighty silverback
Senkwekwe,
whose body was ceremoniously
carried off the mountain.
These atrocities shocked the world,
but the real struggle was
keeping the two young orphans alive.
It's all right.
They survived, but because of
their contact with humans,
they are unlikely to go back
into the wild.
However, soon they will be moved
from this cramped back garden
to a purpose-built sanctuary,
close to the forest
that should be their natural home.
Good...
Oh, don't be shy!
Come, come.
To prepare for the move, the orphans
are being introduced to the car
that will eventually transport them.
Good.
Give me your hand.
Good.
That's good.
It's very important
that they know what's happening.
We don't try to sneak on them
and do things by surprise.
Magda is happy
that the orphans are healthy.
But before she leaves Congo,
there is a family of gorillas
that she needs to check up on,
one closely connected to the orphans.
In Rwanda, the old female, Tuck,
has so far chosen
to stay with silverback Rano and his
small, disgruntled band of gorillas.
As their leader,
one of Rano's responsibilities
is to keep the group safe.
But now he is taking them
out of the National Park
and onto the farmland
that surrounds it.
Rano is desperate
to gain the group's respect.
Leading the gorillas out of the park
to find a tasty treat
could be a way of winning them over.
But it's not without risk.
Nestling beneath the volcanoes
is the bustling town of Ruhengeri.
Its ever-expanding population
needs feeding,
which means the last few hundred
mountain gorillas on Earth
face stiff competition for resources.
Potatoes are the main crop grown here,
but the gorillas ignore these
and go in search of a different delicacy.
Eucalyptus. These fast-growing trees
are planted by locals
to be used for building materials.
This sort of damage does bring
the gorillas into conflict with humans.
But this is not the only concern
for those looking after them.
By coming onto the farmland,
the gorillas are exposed
to human diseases.
Gorillas have little immunity
to our illnesses.
Even a simple cough or cold
could kill them.
Much work is being done to make people
aware of the risks and benefits
of having mountain gorillas
living alongside them.
And where better to start
than with the next generation?
At this school,
the Art of Conservation team
are teaching Rwandan children
all about gorillas.
So, approximately how many
mountain gorillas are alive today?
About 700 up to 800.
Just as important
as learning about mountain gorillas
is the fact that the gorillas
are helping to give something back
to the local community.
Money from gorilla tourism is used
to build the very schools
in which the children have their lessons.
The future of the mountain gorilla
is in the hands of the people
that share this land.
If both can benefit
from this relationship,
the gorilla's future will be more secure.
At Martha's forest home in Uganda,
the results of Ponoka's paternity test
have arrived.
So I just checked my e-mail
and the subject heading is,
"The paternity of Ponoka is solved."
So I'm very curious to see,
because he's nearly one year old.
Yeah. "So if there's no other options,
"the case for Rukina as father
is quite strong. Congrats."
So yeah, Rukina's the dad.
That's exciting. Now we know.
Knowing the gorilla's paternity
helps Martha paint
a much more accurate picture
of gorilla life.
Although little Ponoka is
the son of Rukina,
this doesn't make his first year
any easier.
At ten months, he's still
pretty wobbly on his legs,
and only just beginning to explore
his jungle playground.
But once he reaches his first birthday,
his chances of survival will increase.
Through her close scrutiny
of this gorilla family,
Martha is finding silverback Rukina
to be a very successful leader.
Part of this success
is his ability to attract females.
Unlike Rano, whose only female is
the elderly Tuck, Rukina has six females,
including the newly arrived Twijiki.
Young females often move
between groups
to avoid breeding with their fathers,
but today, young Twijiki seems happy
to mate with just about anyone.
She's already nearly been caught
with one of the blackbacks,
and that's a dangerous game
to be playing.
Her behaviour has certainly
stirred up the group.
Twijiki has now positioned herself
between two blackbacks.
Both are interested...
but she seems to have a favourite.
The spurned blackback
spoils their game.
They started to mate,
but then the other blackback grunted
at them aggressively, very loudly.
And then they stopped
and the female moved off.
There was a chance
that Rukina would come running.
If this goes on for much longer,
the youngsters are certain to get caught.
In Rwanda, Felix has received the news
about Rano leading his group
onto the farmland.
He decides to find them.
Although Rano needs the group
to help him attract more females,
the group needs Rano.
Without him, the male blackbacks
are too young
to take on the responsibilities
of leadership,
and the group would fall apart.
But now it's Rano's leadership skills
that are about to be tested to the limit.
There's another group close by,
so what now they're doing is,
you know, the chest beats,
hooting from one side
and then from the other side as well.
It's not uncommon
for gorilla groups to meet,
and although potentially dangerous,
it's a chance for females
to switch groups.
Felix is concerned that Tuck,
the only female in the group,
may take this opportunity to leave.
But Rano seems prepared to risk
life and limb trying to hold on to her,
even though she's spurned him.
Why he's so determined
to keep hold of Tuck is a mystery,
especially since she's unable to breed.
For whatever reason, he continues
to put on an impressive display
in the hope
he can ward off any challenger.
The whooping is thought to be a way
of filling the chest with air
to help increase the effect
of the chest beat.
And right now, Rano needs to sound
as impressive and as powerful as he can.
Felix radios the rangers
tracking the other group.
They are very close.
The other group is about 200 metres.
This could be dangerous
for Felix and his rangers.
No-one wants to get caught up
in the middle of full-on gorilla warfare.
But it's terrible news for Rano,
as it now seems inevitable
that he will have to face up to a fight
with another silverback.
To make matters worse,
Tuck is definitely showing signs
of interest in what's going on.
Oh, come on, Tuck,
where are you going?
Already the blackbacks
from both groups have started to mix,
but this is not their fight.
It's all down to the silverbacks now.
Rano holds back with Tuck...
...but a clash seems unavoidable.
And Tuck doesn't make things any easier,
as she follows Rano.
This is a real test of Rano's skills
as a leader.
With three silverbacks and seven females,
the rival group is a big one.
There's three silverbacks in there.
These females could use
this opportunity to join Rano,
so the rival silverbacks
are understandably cautious.
It's quite serious.
Everybody's here, all the females.
Everybody's interested
in the other group,
so it's a very tense situation.
If this escalates,
Rano could be badly hurt.
The silverbacks posture to each other,
turning side on to show their full might.
Rano must stand his ground
if he wants to hold on to his group.
You need to go up there,
because that can be nasty sometimes.
As the gorillas size each other up,
Rano's stoic defence of Tuck
seems to be working.
The silverbacks realise that none
of the females are ready to move...
...and since no-one wants to fight,
things begin to calm down.
As the gorillas start to disperse,
Felix senses
that the situation has been defused.
Rano has handled
this potentially disastrous encounter
with great skill and courage.
Whether this has been appreciated
by Tuck and the rest of the group
remains to be seen.
In Congo, gorilla vet Magda
is on her way to visit
the family of one of the orphans.
News has reached her
of a newborn baby in the group,
and she wants to make sure it's healthy.
This is the biggest group
on Congolese side.
unusual thing - only one silverback.
Usually, in big groups like this, we have
three, four, sometimes five silverbacks.
In Congo side, since April this year,
we introduced masks,
so, because of the health reasons
and disease transmission,
we all wear masks
when we watch gorillas.
Congo is the first country
to insist
that all visitors to the gorillas
put on face masks
to prevent the spread of human disease.
It's especially important,
as these are some of the least visited
mountain gorillas in the world.
Magda makes reassuring gorilla sounds
so that they are fully aware
of her presence.
He's got his lunchbox with him.
It's an amazing time of year for gorillas
now in all Virungas, with bamboo shoots.
That's probably 90% easily of their diet
at this time of year.
I haven't seen this group before,
but that's a very interesting group.
That's by far the biggest
of all the Congolese groups.
And especially we would like
to see the female, Maisha, today,
maybe we are lucky to see her,
because she's the youngest
in the history mother.
She's only six years old and she
already has a three-week-old baby.
So we will try to see her
if we are lucky.
Trying to see a mother and baby
in a group still suspicious of humans
is proving to be difficult.
But at last, Magda is able to get
a glimpse of the newly born baby.
Sometimes, with young females like this,
they are confused,
they don't know
how to take care of the baby,
and babies die within a few days.
But this baby's already three weeks old.
It's holding well, it's active,
starts already looking
at its surroundings.
So I think it's going to be OK.
With the birth of this baby,
the group is slowly rebuilding itself
after the horrors
of the gorilla murders.
War, poaching, armed rebels...
the problems facing gorillas in Congo
are immense.
But despite all this,
the Congolese are forging ahead
with gorilla conservation.
Looking after the animals
are over 650 dedicated rangers.
Often outnumbered and outgunned,
over 130 have lost their lives
in the line of duty.
One of the biggest battles
is against the illegal charcoal makers.
Every year, hundreds of tonnes of charcoal
are taken from the forest.
For the local population
it's their main cooking fuel.
Demand is high, and some of it comes
from within the National Park
where the gorillas are found.
It's the rangers' job
to shut down these illegal
charcoal-making operations.
But it's no good cutting off the supply
if the demand is still there,
so, ingeniously in Congo,
they have come up with
an alternative cooking fuel -
briquettes.
The briquettes can be produced
from all sorts of materials,
including wood chippings, cardboard,
even unused husks of rice.
The process is simple,
and just requires a pressing machine
to create the briquette.
It's environmentally friendly,
and gorilla friendly.
So far, 600 briquette-making machines
have been distributed,
producing over 3,000 sacks
of briquettes each month,
and creating more than 3,000 jobs.
It's a great success story,
and one that will help secure
the future of people and gorillas
in Congo.
In Uganda, Martha's gorilla group
is travelling deep into the forest.
Gorillas can have a home range
of up to 20 square kilometres,
and Rukina's group is nearing
the very furthest boundary of their range.
This is a four-hour hike
for Martha and the team.
But it's the only way
for Martha to see
if young female Twijiki is still
causing chaos in the group.
They finally settle,
and Martha gets a chance
to look for the young troublemaker,
Twijiki.
She finds the younger members of
the group playing in the undergrowth.
But it's not just the juveniles
enjoying this game.
Twijiki is also there
and all three are chuckling in delight.
It's really nice because Twijiki,
the young female, was playing
and so, again, just how she's not quite
an adult, but still not quite a kid.
So some days she's a young lady,
but today she's trying to be a kid.
Twijiki's venture into adulthood
is temporarily on hold.
And with that, the temptation for
the blackbacks to misbehave has gone...
for now.
The group has travelled close
to the very centre of Bwindi
and the great swamp
from which the park got its name.
As the light starts to fade,
the smaller gorillas take to the trees
to build their nests.
They make a fresh nest each night.
A springy bed of folded branches
makes a great natural mattress.
Nothing beats a newly made bed
in your own home.
But for tonight,
it's Martha and her team
who will be without
their creature comforts.
Instead of trudging home,
they decide to camp out for the night.
Martha always enjoys
a night under the stars,
but tonight there's another reason
she wants to be near the gorillas.
There's a milestone coming up,
and Martha can't miss it.
Daybreak in Uganda.
Martha is first up.
For her, this is an eagerly awaited day.
She's just a 20-minute walk
from the gorillas' nesting site.
And here's what Martha has waited
all year to see -
at last little Ponoka is one.
This is sort of a milestone for Ponoka.
About one in three infants
don't live past age three,
so there's very high infant mortality.
But most of the deaths occur
in the first year.
So now that Ponoka's reached one,
the likelihood of him surviving
goes up dramatically.
The population of mountain gorillas is so
small that every single individual counts.
It's nice to think that in 15, 20 years,
he might be a dominant silverback
of his own group.
I hope I'm still here then.
I won't be running up these hills
quite as fast, I guess. I hope so.
Reaching his first birthday
is the first
of many challenges he will face
growing up as a male gorilla.
But with a successful silverback leader
like Rukina heading up his family,
things are already looking good
for his future.
Under the watchful eye of Martha,
Rukina is proving to be both a good father
and a strong leader.
My hopes for Rukina
and the rest of his group
is that they live a natural, normal
life span in a well-protected park.
At the moment, Bwindi is quite well
protected, so I have reason to hope.
In Congo, it's also a big day
for the orphaned gorillas.
At last they're on the move.
Having been passed healthy by Magda,
they are driven two hours
to their new home.
It's this kind of commitment
to the last few hundred mountain gorillas
that's essential if they are to survive
into the next century.
Now they are finally able to enjoy
living in a much more suitable home.
They can never go back into the wild,
as it's unlikely they would
be accepted into a group.
But they have each other,
and their new home is as close as can be
to the forest they came from.
But what of the brave
silverback leader Rano,
living on the slopes
of the Rwandan volcanoes?
Has the group finally accepted him?
They certainly seem a lot more relaxed
and at ease with each other.
Maybe Rano's heroic stand
against a larger, stronger group
has convinced the others
that he might be a leader worth following.
But what of his future?
They all need each other.
Rano, as the dominant silverback,
needs all the support
he can get from these guys,
so let's, you know, give them some time,
three, four years, they will grow
and they will start to interact,
having these encounters
with other groups,
and they will eventually attract females.
My hopes for Rano,
I really hope, you know, he does
get some more females
in the future.
I do like Rano.
He still has
a long way to go
before he reaches
the status of his father,
the legendary Titus.
It would certainly help
if he could attract more females,
but with the hard-earned support
of his fellow gorillas,
at least he has the chance
to follow in his father's footsteps.
Rano is also lucky
because, as well as his group,
he has the support of
a dedicated team of scientists...
...trackers...
...and vets...
all working to ensure
the future remains bright
for every gorilla
in this precious mountain kingdom.
Rano, in his forest home
in the heart of Africa,
is one of the last 700 mountain gorillas
that together
are a species in intensive care.
But it's exactly this kind of care
and attention
that has ensured that,
for the past 20 years,
mountain gorilla populations
haven't dropped, or just stayed still,
they've actually risen.
Could the last few hundred
mountain gorillas
finally be safe in our hands?