The Karisoke gorillas meet the Goodall family

This is the full clip of how the young gorilla came to meet my family on their first day back in the forest - after eighteen years! My daughter Fiona was only four months old when she first came to Karisoke in 1970. The research gorillas were not as well habituated to us in those early days! When I became Director of Karisoke my wife Margaret and I decided to take our two daughters to see their gorilla relatives.

This was their very first day back in the forest - and a complete surprise to them as the gorillas came to say their hello. This infant (Amohoro) took a liking to Marisa as she was the smallest I think!

These were priceless times for us. I have never shown any of this material before. I thought to do so would be unwise as other people may have tried to do the same with other free-living gorillas. This would have been dangerous for both gorillas and humans!

Today the tourists in Rwanda may go and see other - well habituated family groups of gorillas. Such visits are well organised and safe for everyone - though obviously you cannot have the gorillas on your lap these days. This is JUST to show how well habituated our research gorillas became - thanks to Dian Fossey, Bob Campbell and the Rwandan staff and other research students at Karisoke - after almost over 50 years now.

Видео The Karisoke gorillas meet the Goodall family канала Dr Alan Goodall