Give us a hug Harry, you big ape!
As the BBC tells his story, an enchanting diary of how Mukiza the wild gorilla grew from tiny tot to 25st silverback — through the eyes of the naturalist who watched in wonder...
HE’LL no doubt shake hands with thousands of well-wishers during his lifetime.
But when Prince Harry met ape expert Dr Jane Goodall there was only one way to say hello – with a ‘chimp greeting’.
To roars of laughter, the pair recreated how a ‘nervous female’ approaches a male, with Harry patting Dr Goodall, 85, on her head to induce her to go in for a hug.
Yesterday’s encounter took place at a conference in Windsor designed to encourage the young to get involved in Dr Goodall’s ‘Roots and Shoots’ project. The anthropologist had shown Harry her chimp greeting when they met for the first time in December.
She also visited the Duke and Duchess of Sussex last month and had a cuddle with baby Archie. ‘He’s very cute and very gentle,’ she said. Dr Goodall confirmed that she would be working with the couple in the future and has invited the prince to visit her projects in Tanzania.
FOR Martha Robbins, seeing mountain gorilla Mukiza is akin to being reunited with the child of a close friend. The primatologist first observed Mukiza — born in November 1999 — when he was just a few weeks old, and she has followed his path ever since, watching him become one of the last remaining mountain gorilla kings.
Now aged 19, he is the dominant male of one of around 35 gorilla families in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwest Uganda, which is home to some 400 mountain gorillas — almost half the world’s total population.
‘He’s the only gorilla I’ve known since birth,’ says Martha (pictured below), ‘and every time I go back to Bwindi, it’s a bit like seeing a kid you’ve known since they were small and thinking: “Wow, when did you get so big and grown up?” ’
Now, TV viewers will also get to know Mukiza (which means Saviour) and see the father he has become, as a new BBC2 programme follows the first year of life of one of his four offspring. The camera crew shadowed Martha, 52, who has studied gorillas for 30 years and is the lead researcher for the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Here, she talks HELEN WEATHERS through her fascinating family album charting Mukiza’s life from playful youngster to 25st alpha silverback ruling his own domain.