Perhaps there's something about these creatures' gentle vulnerability despite their colossal size that triggers a sense of empathy for our distant cousins. Today gorillas trekking in Rwanda and my adoptive home of Uganda are both countries' biggest draw for international visitors. The famous sequence of Sir David’s encounter and his awe for the gentle giants helped bring a new understanding of their true nature to TV screens around the world. Seeing this popular TV personality interacting with friendly gorillas changed all that. At one point, a survey of the world’s most feared animals featured gorillas alongside sharks and spiders. Before Sir David Attenborough’s landmark TV programme, Life On Earth, gorillas were seen largely in a negative light, based on King Kong and cheap B-movie monsters.
