A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough

Synopsis: Nature documentarian David Attenborough reflects on his time with a group of mountain gorillas in the 1970’s. Current footage shows us how the animals are faring now.

The great naturalist and conservationist, David Attenborough, adds another jewel to his collection of nature documentaries with A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough. Sir David visits the Pablo family group, mountain gorillas who live in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda. At the time there were only about 250 mountain gorillas, owing to poaching.

Attenborough would meet three-year-old Pablo in 1978. I don’t know who chose the Spanish name for the East African animal. By the 1990’s their monikers would be more geographically specific– but, unfortunately for me, more difficult to pronounce.

Anyhow, Attenborough was in the area filming an episode of “Life on Earth.” The filmmakers hadn’t expected to get so close to the animals, but the gorillas had been habituated to human presence by primatologist Dian Fossey’s long-term observations. The episode’s archival footage includes a remarkable photo taken of young Pablo reclining on David, who was sprawled on the rain forest ground.

As Sir David will be one hundred years old on May 8, 2026, he did not trek up any mountainsides to see Pablo’s descendants circa 2025. Instead, he narrates from an armchair in a cozy den. Watching A Gorilla Story, I was moved by the tenderness I saw and shocked by the violence shown. Lest you imagine that Sir David was tenderly rocking an orphaned baby gorilla or violently hurling books at the camera crew, I want to clarify that I am referring to our great ape cousins’ behavior, not that of the knighted Englishman.

A little background because the mountain gorillas are such amazing creatures… Mountain gorillas evolved from the eastern lowland gorilla tens of thousands of years ago. Their ancestors were isolated in the high-altitude rain forests due to climate-induced landscape change. They have longer, thicker fur in response to the colder climate.  Their diets needed to change too, as there was not an abundance of fruit. They made do with tougher, more fibrous vegetation which led to specialized teeth and very strong jaw muscles. The looksmaxxing guys online might appreciate the adult males’ heavy bone structure.

In present-day, A Gorilla Story visits the Pablo group, composed of dozens of members who range over three square miles. Millenial Girucasi (born in May of 1995) is the leader of the group. As males mature, they develop a silver back of fur – very regal. Girucasi has been in power for about four years. The lead male is responsible for security. Now that Girucasi is in his late twenties, he’s no longer at his most vital. Can you imagine the same for us humans? Many of us are just getting established with work and, maybe, having a child. Thankfully it’s just the athletes and women models among us who must be concerned about retirement after reaching a quarter century of life on earth.

Just like in a Shakespeare play or at the Disney company, there’s always an eager, younger male waiting in the wings to make his move for the top job. In this case, seventeen-year-old Umwuzu has been watching and wondering. The whole group knows what’s up what with his displays of hooting and beating his chest. He’s really bold about it too; trampling around in the middle of a group who are just chilling, eating their stems and pith.

Teta looks on. Teta is the lead female (13 years old), sort of like the director of social relations for the gorilla troop which includes being a power broker. She keeps the peace and monitors the lead male’s successes. Teta is a working mom, with a baby just a few months old. The wide-eyed, very wooly-looking baby who spends most of her time in Teta’s arms is Ubi.

While Umwuzu works up to attacking the current leader, he wants to show off his skills to the group. Just like human politicians, right? He leads some in the group to nutritious ants, just like a kingpin in a human dystopia. The older apes know how to carefully eat the stinging army ants. But the youngsters? They are certainly stressed by the food painfully fighting back. Kids, I wouldn’t know what to do either. As a vegan, I’d just sullenly shuffle back to the wild celery. Quick aside… one has to be truly hard up to eat celery with its slightly acerbic taste and horrible stringiness. I bet I could quickly convert the mountain gorillas to fruit. Once they taste apples, they won’t be going back to thistle.

Days pass by laconically—Oh, No!!! That muscled teen Umwuzu is attacking Gicurasi! Stop it, you wicked ape! I realise that this is all part of their male instincts rising with sexual maturity. They want the female apes for sexual partners, they want to decide where the troop travels to, etcetera. But I felt sorry for the old leader. Teta was watching and she puts her two cents in; she attends to Gicurasi. The other gorillas gravitate to the couple. Woww. I couldn’t believe the look on Umwuzu’s face! He was like, I won! And yet Teta and the others are acting like Gicurasi was victorious!

I knew from watching Jane Goodall’s specials that chimps can be pretty violent. At least a few males in each group are always scheming to overthrow the male leader which we know from their careful watching and strategic displays. Also, the males regularly get together to hunt monkeys (sad) and periodically organize to wage war on neighboring groups. All this is a preface to saying that I thought gorillas were more peaceable within their groups. Overall, it seems they are, but the more silverbacks in a gorilla group, the more likely conflict is.

Just one more Debbie Downer note: there is another young silverback who is getting attacked, Imfura. (The movie doesn’t show this, but I read at the Dian Fossey Gorilla diary site that Imfura was getting aggressive to the leader.) He’s not a skilled fighter yet and we see him with bloody gashes. Even though he’s driven to challenge other grown males, Imfura is gentle and playful with the gorilla children.

And that’s the thing; their emotions and complex social relationships are similar to ours. Jane Goodall concluded the same about chimpanzees. Birute Galdikas, the anthropologist who studied orangutangs in the wild, may not have seen as much social conflict, as her subjects are not highly social. Maybe orangs don’t spend as much time plotting and maneuvering.

You can certainly see familiar and welcome behavior in the mountain gorillas: children playing, babies tenderly cradled by their mothers, groups sitting together eating and, later napping hand-in-hand…well, maybe people don’t typically siesta together in groups, but it seems just a step away from chilling together in the family room or dorm community space.

Sir David speaks with reverence for the gorilla species when he remarks upon the intelligence and awareness that he saw in their eyes when he encountered them. He reads from his diaries about his first encounter with the mountain gorillas.

The present-day photography is astounding — scads of different shades of green in the forest, the minute texture of the animals’ fur and the glint of light playing across their dark eyes. There’s also a portrait of a lone gorilla gazing out at the horizon that is breathtaking. The same gorilla brings a group of farming villagers to a stop when they see him observing them from his hilltop vantage.

Sir David reading from his diaries is a highlight. The wonder of encountering the gorillas. Recalling the curiosity and playfulness of the youngsters, including Pablo. (It’s amazing that the little group of females and their children wouldn’t flee from the stranger/s. There must have been guides present whom the gorillas knew. If a silverback had been present, it seems probable that the newcomers would have been rushed off.)

The (nearly) centurion reminisces about Pablo. The film shows stills of Pablo as a child (extremely cute) and later as the silverback leader of his group. “I will,” Sir David says, “never forget him.”

Seeing the highs and lows of the gorillas’ lives is deeply moving. So are the reflections of Sir David Attenborough, still blazing with curiosity and solicitude.

P.S.  Click here  to learn about mountain gorillas.

 

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  A

Cut to the Chase:  A must for lovers of the natural world and its inhabitants.

Humor Highlight:  The youngsters’ play.