How One Orphaned Gorilla Inspired Her to Save Hundreds More | National Geographic

Hunters are going in and killing large family groups. The young orphans are left because they're too small to be sold as meat. So I'd only been here a month, and I was given the opportunity to look after an infant gorilla. The reason my whole life turned upside down and I stayed was because of KH Daniel. Apex and Africa exist in collaboration with the Cameroonian government, who can go and confiscate these orphans, and then we bring them out into MEU.

We're home to most of the primates that you find in Cameroon. When an orphan comes in to the center, there's the whole process of three-month quarantine; the correct health procedure to get them emotionally and physically strong enough. All different factors come into that, as to which family group we choose them to be introduced into. The day K. Daniel was handed to me, we'd got news that he'd been rescued in a village.

I'd never even seen a gorilla that small. I put him on me, and he grabbed on for dear life. For such a little thing, he had a grip on him. So the arms went round, the little feet gripped on, and that's where he stayed for two years. It wasn't him having to learn how to be with me; it was me having to learn how to be a gorilla so that he would understand.

I obviously did gorilla vocalization with a slight British accent. I tried my best, but I'm not G. When he got to a certain age, they learn a lot through socializing with each other and play. You know, there's only so much he's going to get from me. Is that funny?

And he's the love of my life. If somebody said to me, "Would you have given all that up for him to be back where he should be?" then I'd have happily not ever met K. Daniel, the same as I'd have never met any of these because they're not meant to be here with us. They're meant to be in the forest.

All the ones that are in our care now, they're all safe. They're not a risk anymore. Is that something to be proud of? Not really. We're a sticking plaster over the problem. The future of these individuals all lies in human hands, really. They can't change anything. They're not doing anything that ensures their survival.

If chimpanzees and gorillas disappear from wild forest areas, then we've done that as humankind. It's black and white; it's like, okay, we're either going to solve this or we're going to destroy it.