"In 1902, while on a military mission in Central Africa a German army captain named Von Beringei shot and killed two mysterious creatures." "He then sent the skull and bones of one of them back home to Germany." "That creature has been injuring people back to Central Africa ever since." "In 1921, American naturalist Carl Ackley made his way to the gorillas' ancestral home:" "the Virunga Volcanoes in what was then the Belgian Congo." "Ackley brought a movie camera to document his visit and a little girl, to help prove Africa wasn't such a dark continent." "But there was much more to Ackley¡¯s expedition." "Ackley had come to collect mountain gorilla specimens for exhibit in New York." "But each time the men stared into the eyes of a dead mountain gorilla they saw a man-like creature staring back at them." "Ackley decided the killing must end." "He urged Belgium's King Albert to make a permanent sanctuary of the gorillas' home." "Today, in the cold, rainy, high ground of Rwanda, Uganda, and Zaire the gorillas live on, much as they have for thousands of years." "Only now, their mountain home is tiny and isolated pressed in on all sides by people and farmland." "More and more, the mountain gorilla's future lies in human hands." "American field biologist George Schaller was the first person to study mountain gorilla behavior." "He and his wife, Kay, spent a year in the forest in 1959." "A number of other scientists have followed." "Among them, current director of the Karisoke Research Center, Diane Dorin." "Hi." "Hi." "We made it." "Good to see you." "Hi." "Hi." "Nice to see you." "You have just made it." "The patrol's going out." "I was going out to see gorillas at Barabaguisa." "Would you like to come?" "Wonderful." "Great." "Gorilla Researcher Dian Fossey established Karisoke in 1967 in the forest she grew to love." "For Schaller, too, the forest became an enchanted place." "Some of my most magical moments with wild animals were watching gorillas staying with them day and night." "I used to do all my own gorilla tracking." "You walk along slowly, you see the broken vegetation." "You smell the animals." "There's the musty, somewhat sweet odor of gorillas in the air." "When you follow them hour after hour you adapt to their rhythm of doing things." "You move at their speed." "You start thinking at their speed, almost." "And that is a lovely feeling for a biologist to seemingly enter into the lives of the animals without disturbing them." "When approaching the animals, scientists try not to be too quiet." "Mountain gorillas like to know when people are near." "The mountain gorilla's day is spent feeding and resting." "Feeding and resting and feeding some more." "There are only a few hundred mountain gorillas left in the world." "Most live as part of a family." "The father and protector of this family is the male silverback, Umigumi." "He acts as a magnet for the group." "The females gather around him." "Their infants and offspring gather around them." "Mountain gorillas are social animals." "The closeness begins in infancy." "Rarely, if ever, does a mountain gorilla mother let her baby out of her sight." "The baby, for his part, likes nothing better than to make contact with the other members of the group." "Even when they spread out to begin their daily search for food the gorillas continue to communicate with one another." "While the audits devote most of their waking hours to foraging for food the youngsters devote most of theirs to play." "Park guards have named this 3-year-old Enzelli." "They call his friend Envura." "At 8 years, Kareara is a bit of a bully." "Mashuswe is only four." "The games they play help the youngsters determine their status in the group." "Childhood can last anywhere from 8 to 12 years but the gorillas' need to maintain their status never seems to end." "Any opportunity to reinforce the hierarchy is seized upon." "Then comes young adulthood." "At 13, Entwari has the beginnings of a silverback and his first real sense of the power that comes along with it." "He also has a dedicated, young male follower." "But what Entwari really wants is the attention and allegiance of the females in the group." "Umigumi seems unthreatened by Entwari's advances towards the females." "Well over 400 pounds the dominant male silverback could easily discipline the younger one or throw him out of the group altogether." "For now, Umigumi seems content to focus on the local vegetation of which he eats some 50 pounds a day." "Mountain gorillas are mainly vegetarian with a few ants and grubs thrown in for good measure." "Their staple diet includes a bitter, stinging mixture of thistles, nettles, goose grass, bamboo and wild celery." "Although he has already begun to experiment with the food his mother likes to eat Abumwe will continue to rely on her milk until he's 3 years old." "By the time he's four Abumwe will be strong enough to forage on his own." "Mountain gorillas are generally well-adapted to the world they live in." "However idyllic their home may appear for the youngsters in the group, the mountains hold many perils." "Many newborns simply don't survive." "Embelli gave birth two days ago." "It will be several months before she can even let go of her baby much less let him out of her sight." "The mountain gorillas are more vulnerable than they know." "Their ancestral home is much smaller than it once was." "All around them, human activity is increasing." "Yet, the mountain gorillas continue to live and move in ways familiar to them for generations." "They do not distinguish between thistles and meadows that are inside the park and thistles and meadows that are outside it." "They simply go where their never-ending search for food takes them." "Only now, they find others there." "Both the mountain gorillas and their forest sanctuary now receive official protection." "Park guards and anti-poaching patrols go to the forest every day." "To protect the gorillas and all the other wildlife the patrols search for and destroy snares that local hunters have set for game." "The guards search the forest checking on the gorillas' whereabouts and welfare." "The same guards who name the mountain gorillas at birth follow their progress for years, watching as the gorillas grow to maturity." "Over time, a close relationship develops a bond between the animals and the men." "Almost every day, it rains." "The mountain gorillas don't seem to like it." "They don't seem to know what to do about it, either other than simply wait it out." "At least, the rain provides them with a rich supply of food." "After feeding, the family gathers around the silverback, Umigumi." "While the audits rest, the youngsters play." "For the group's leading young-adult male, it's become much more than play." "Left unchecked, Entwari's newfound strength could eventually tear the group apart." "The threat Entwari represents puts females, such as Poppy, on edge." "Determined to get some kind of reaction from the others Entwari bites into an inedible plant and contemplates his next move." "This time, even Umigumi seems uneasy." "Entwari is presenting himself as their new leader but the females don't see it that way." "Having forced Entwari out, the group moves on." "Before she joins them, Poppy, still vibrating with excess energy vents it on the first young male she can find." "To be pushed out, for good, seems harsh but what Entwari really needs now is time and space to mature to the point where he, too, can have a family of his own." "The next few years are critical for Entwari." "They are also critical for all the other mountain gorillas." "Whether the outside world will allow Entwari and the others the time and space they need is an open question." "One thing is certain:" "If the mountain gorillas are to survive we will have to protect them and their forest home forever." "If we ever turn our backs, they'll be gone."