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‘The simplicity of life just hits you’: Watch rare footage of critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla feeding her baby in the wild


Rare footage captures the moment an eastern lowland gorilla breastfeeds her baby in the tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“To see this behaviour so close was remarkable and what struck me was how familiar it looks, just like humans,” filmmaker Vianet Djenguet told Live Science in an email. “The infant was suckling whilst looking at us, like I have seen in so many villages across the world. The simplicity of life just hits you.”

The clip was filmed for the new PBS series “Nature,” with the first episode — “Silverback” — following Djenguet as he documents the lives of eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), a critically endangered subspecies of eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) found in the eastern part of the DRC.

Filmmakers captured a mother eastern lowland gorilla nursing her infant for the PBS show “Silverback.” (Image credit: Silverback/PBS Nature)

Djenguet is working with DRC conservationists to habituate a group of gorillas in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park led by an alpha male known as Mpungwe. Habituation is the process of getting a group of gorillas used to the presence of humans so the animals can generate income from tourism, allowing visitors to safely view them in the forest.

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