Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
• VHS Release Date: July 9, 1997
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304475969
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,174 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Fortunately, it is illegal in most places to hunt and capture gorillas, but it is difficult to enforce the laws. Still, there are hundreds of gorillas being cared for by humans. This video, released in 1991, explores the status of gorillas in captivity. Rapunzel is brought to the Los Angeles Zoo to mate with a dominant silverback. In San Diego a concrete jungle is demolished in 1989 to make a new, more natural habitat for the gorillas. In Atlanta a gorilla named Willie B. takes his first walk outside in 27 years. In a Tacoma, Washington, shopping mall Ivan remains in solitary confinement as the loneliest gorilla in the world. In Columbus, Ohio, a zookeeper is reunited with his favorite pal, Suzie, after being separated for years. She hugs him through the gate. In Howletts, England, the largest colony of urban gorillas thrives under the care of an eccentric millionaire. He longs to put them back in the wild but worries that it's not safe enough yet. This video, though in need of an update, is an important counterpart to learning about primates in the wild and suggests we will "conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." --Cristina Del Sesto

Product Description

Take an intimate and timely journey into the world of gorillas living under human care. Witness a heartwarming reunion between a zookeeper and the gorilla he befriended more than 20 years ago. Meet a remarkable gorilla who paints while in captivity, and visit an innovative gorilla orphanage in West Africa. Traditionally, gorillas have been separated in sanitized cells for public safety and viewing. But with few successful gorilla births in captivity, zookeepers took a look at the outdated habitations - and then took action. They discovered that gorillas are group animals, which are unlikely to socialize or breed when isolated in pairs, and responded by developing zoo environments that closely resemble gorilla habitats in the wild. Far from the savage King Kong portrayed in Hollywood movies, you will discover that gorillas are gentle, noble individuals, each with a story to tell. Spanning three continents, THE URBAN GORILLA will forever change the way you see these magnificent creatures.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "We conserve only what we love. We love only what we understand.", July 16, 2005

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: National Geographic Video: The Urban Gorilla [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Included in this fascinating (but dated) video is the remarkable newsfilm which changed much of the world's thinking about gorillas twenty years ago. A young boy falls into a gorilla pit at the London Zoo, where he lies unconscious as a 450-lb. silverback gorilla slowly approaches him. As stunned onlookers look on, the gorilla sits down beside him, and gently touches him with his finger, and when the child starts to cry, the gorilla returns to his enclosure. Widely distributed on news channels, the film shows a gentle creature concerned about an injured child, not a King Kong.

Striking in its emphasis on the human qualities of these immense primates, this National Geographic special stresses their sociability, their fear of separation, their depression when kept in unnatural isolation, and, most of all, their gentleness. It focuses particularly on "urban gorillas," those animals removed from their natural habitats and living under the care of humans, illustrating the kinds of lives they lead--in gorilla orphanages, zoos, and, unfortunately, even a Tacoma, Washington, shopping mall.

Zoos in the past had little idea of the environment gorillas needed to lead a "natural" life, but times have changed. The gorilla is now so threatened in its native environment that it is facing extinction, and the development of captive breeding programs and the creation of zoo environments closer to the animals' lives in the wild have become essential. As we see here, gorillas at the San Diego Zoo once lived in a concrete cubbyhole, but the zoo demolished this exhibit in 1989, completely changing the gorilla habitat by making it open, with trees and hills. A baby gorilla has been the result. The Atlanta Zoo began a new exhibit in 1985, in which the gorillas range freely through grass and trees, and in 1988, their four gorilla family groups produced three new three babies. John Aspinall's sanctuary for gorillas in Howletts, England, has produced 41 births since its inception.

By stressing what gorillas and humans have in common in this dramatic video, which is filled with moving "portraits" of individual gorillas, National Geographic succeeds in creating an "understanding of our fellow primates." As narrator Glenn Close states, "We will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." Mary Whipple

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Urban Gorilla, June 25, 2008

By 

Ellen R. Fissel "aaronfissel" (South Mountain, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: National Geographic Video: The Urban Gorilla [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A great documentry for those who love primates...especially gorillas! Buy it and enjoy the show!!! :)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A demonstration of the mistreatment of these noble and gentle creatures, February 29, 2008

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: National Geographic Video: The Urban Gorilla [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you have any feeling for animals, you will find this tape difficult to watch at times. Gorillas are magnificent, intelligent and highly social creatures, yet some of the gorillas featured were held in isolation in small cages for decades. Such treatment would have driven humans to insanity, yet the gorillas seem able to adapt when placed in a social environment.
In one particular case, a gorilla named Willie B. was put in a more natural environment with other gorillas after decades of isolation. While it took some time, he adapted very well to his new situation. It was uplifting to see the gorillas living in zoo environments that closely resemble their natural habitat. In some sense humans owe it to the gorillas to provide such environments because their natural one has largely been destroyed. Gorillas are not savage creatures, despite their size and tremendous power; they exhibit a gentleness that is touching.