52 mins | 2017 | Documentary
Deep in the equatorial heart of the remote Congo Basin lives a tiny colony of gorillas. These are the last survivors of earth's largest primate species. To avoid extinction, scientists want to habituate a family of gorillas to human contact. Then a tourist industry could provide a financial reason to protect the forest home of one of humankind's closest relations. For Discovery Animal Planet.
Stars: Chloe Cipoletta
Deep in the equatorial heart of the remote Congo Basin lives a tiny colony of gorillas. These are the last survivors of earth's largest primate species. To avoid extinction, scientists want to habituate a family of gorillas to human contact. Then a tourist industry could provide a financial reason to protect the forest home of one of humankind's closest relations. For Discovery Animal Planet.
Stars: Chloe Cipoletta
Category
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Short filmTranscript
00:00In 1998, I left Italy and set off for the heart of Africa, to the Congo Basin.
00:30The focus of my quest, lowland gorillas.
00:34My name is Chloe Chipoleta, I'm a primatologist.
00:38My ambition has always been to work in gorilla country.
00:48I shall always remember those shadowy figures moving behind a curtain of leaves,
00:52and the intense searching looks they gave me.
01:00I shall never forget my encounters with these peaceful giants of the equatorial forests.
01:19Today, these gorillas are slowly but surely disappearing.
01:22If nothing is done to protect them, deforestation,
01:26hunting and poaching will one day prove to be fatal.
01:56I lived at the end of this trail, in the heart of the Central African Republic,
02:03on the ancestral lands of the Aka Pygmies.
02:12The Pygmies' way of life has changed dramatically in recent years.
02:17Hoping to improve their living conditions, they have left their traditional forest homes,
02:21and settled along the road leading to the village of Bai Oku,
02:25where the Dzangasanga primate habituation research camp was based.
02:36I had already spent two years observing gorillas in other Central African countries.
02:41I have always been fascinated by these creatures.
02:44My mission here in the Dzangasanga National Park
02:47was to study the gorillas' behaviour and develop an eco-tourism gorilla-watching project.
02:54In order to do this, a group of gorillas first had to be accustomed to the presence of humans.
03:00Not an easy job, as these animals are fierce and aggressive, and not easy to approach.
03:10Finding the right group would require a good deal of endurance and determination.
03:18How could they be found in such a vast forest? And who could help me?
03:34The solution was, in fact, obvious, and right before my eyes.
03:48A number of Aka pygmy families still spent a good deal of time in the forest.
03:52For them, it was a magic place which held no secrets.
04:02It is said that the Akas can follow an animal's trail based on a single upturned leaf,
04:07or a barely visible broken branch.
04:10And they can instantly recognize every sound that echoes through the forest.
04:15Little by little, I managed to win their trust.
04:18I spent time with the women and children.
04:21I convinced them it was possible to accustom the gorillas to the presence of humans.
04:45After a few months, the group's finest hunters, led by Mbanda and Mgungu,
04:51agreed to act as my guides in the forest.
04:59Before long, we were setting out together on the gorillas' trail.