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[00:00.42] Moving from one group to another is something that shapes both gorilla and human society.

[00:05.74] To understand more about its evolutionary origins, researchers studied decades of data on mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, an area that's been monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund since the 60s.

[00:17.42] The research team tracked the dispersal of 56 different female gorillas over the years.

[00:24.33] They discovered that the animals tended to join groups with females they knew, friends they'd grown up with or females that they'd made a social connection with more recently.

[00:31.24] Even if two females had been apart for many years they'd often reunite when an animal moved groups.

[00:36.81] The scientists say this shows that the relationship between two female gorillas is much more socially significant than previously thought.