BBC Mountain Gorilla

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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

to studying these animals

has allowed her to gain the trust

of one gorilla in particular,

the successful silverback leader Rukina.

He leads a group of 14

that includes six females.

With so many females in his group,

silverback Rukina's life

couldn't be more different

to that of Rano back in Rwanda.

The dominant silverback claims

exclusive rights to the females

and, given the chance,

will mate every few hours.

The junior blackbacks

can only look on.

But for one little gorilla,

the temptation to get involved

is just too great.

Ten-month-old Ponoka

is the youngest in the group,

and although Rukina is probably

his father, he could be pushing his luck.

One in three gorillas die

before three years of age.

The first year is the riskiest.

Martha can't wait for little Ponoka

to reach that milestone.

Although Ponoka is the youngest

in this group,

he's not the newest arrival.

That honour goes

to a young female called Twijiki.

Females often move between groups

to avoid mating with their fathers,

and now, in Rukina's group,

the innocent-looking Twijiki

is about to cause chaos.

In Rwanda, gorilla researcher Felix

is on his way to see

the new silverback leader, Rano.

For Felix, this is a chance

to reacquaint himself

with a gorilla he knew many years ago,

and find out how the new leader

and the old female, Tuck, are getting on.

There's little doubt that

silverback Rano would love

to claim his hard-earned right

to the female in his group.

But at 37 years old, Tuck is

most definitely not interested in sex.

Nearly all females stop

by their mid to late 30s.

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