Last night saw the screening on ITV of comedian John Bishop’s Gorilla Adventure.
Filmed in the jungles of Rwanda, John joined a group of vets who have dedicated their lives to saving the livings of the critically endangered mountain gorillas.
He was quick to discover that the gorillas aren’t that different from his nearest and dearest, comparing the adolescent male gorillas to his teenage sons.
John met head vet Mike Cranfield who has seen the mountain gorilla population rise from 600 when he started in 1998 to just under 900 today. This is a 50% increase, demonstrating how the hard work of the vets and other parties involved with saving these precious gorillas is paying off.
The vets trek for hours each and every day to monitor the health of the gorillas so they can treat them at the first sign of illness or injury. As we’ve reported before and films such as Virunga have shone to light, it’s dangerous work.
The team has a brief scare during filming when a silverback male threatened the team when they were trying to treat a baby gorilla for suspected meningitis. We were pleased the threat in this case was from within the gorilla population rather than an outside source such as poachers.
It was great to be treated to the success story of a four-year old gorilla that the team managed to track down. The vets had had to amputate part of his leg in the jungle at just three days old and the gorilla is now thriving and fully on track to become a full grown-silverback.
John commented after the filming that:
“The commitment of the Gorilla Doctors is incredibly inspiring. And when you are so close to these beautiful animals, it is humbling to see how this commitment is saving such an iconic beautiful creature.“
We salute you Mr Bishop for helping to bring greater awareness of the struggles that the mountain gorillas face and the tireless work carried out by the people caring for them.
