"That might be something that you see in a decade, not in two years of filming," Tara Stoinksi, CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, tells me.

The behavior she's referring to occurs in mountain gorilla groups, such as a "dominance transfer," where a younger male silverback takes over leadership from an older male, and infanticide, where an outsider or ostracized gorilla kills the offspring of a new mother within the group. The former of these was captured on camera within days of filming for the new Netflix documentary A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough.

Stoinski joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her role as a scientific adviser on the years-long project, the rarity of the behaviors captured on camera, and her thoughts on gorilla conservation in the Greater Virunga Landscape of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.

Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Image Credit: A male gorilla, Ubwuzu, as featured in the Netflix documentary. Image by Ben Cherry/Courtesy of Netflix/Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

——

Timestamps

(00:00) The story of 'Pablo's group'

(06:18) Unexpected behaviors

(19:42) Conservation challenges (28:34) Regional conflict

(35:15) Final thoughts