BBC Mountain Gorilla

Synopsis: Three-part television documentary about the lives of the 700 remaining mountain gorillas in Africa.
Genre: Documentary
 
IMDB:
8.1
Year:
2010
180 min
207 Views


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

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Unknown

The writer of this script is unknown. more…

All Unknown scripts | Unknown Scripts

4 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "BBC Mountain Gorilla" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/bbc_mountain_gorilla_14114>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    BBC Mountain Gorilla

    Browse Scripts.com

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.