Andy Serkis Quotes

Elephants are contagious.

Gorillas may seem terrifying because of their bodies, but they are really magnificent and very gentle.

… monkeys …

To many people, 'biodiversity' is almost synonymous with the word 'nature,' and 'nature' brings to mind steamy forests and the big creatures that dwell there. Fair enough. But biodiversity is much more than that, for it encompasses not only the diversity of species, but also the diversity within species.

You know, tigers are very unpredictable.

The fewer species there are and the fewer species we know about, the fewer questions we even know to ask.

One of the basic steps in saving a threatened species is to learn more about it: its diet, its mating and reproductive processes, its range patterns, its social behavior.

A lion is not a lion is not a lion. As individuals, as mates, as members of a society, they're all very different.

The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.

… a bunch of chimpanzees.

Elephants are magnificient creatures.

The protection of biodiversity and, therefore, of endangered species is an issue to which I attach a great deal of importance.

I have never had an animal that didn't have a personality, one differing from another.

[My] excursions provided a unique opportunity for observing [the gorillas' behavior] in their natural habitat... Then, all too soon, the infants were demanded for their trip to the zoo. ... [H]appily the babies did not know they would never see their mountain home again

Extinction is forever!

The verdict is for the trumpeter swan and against the army. The army will have to find another nesting place.

I’ve looked monkeys in the eye, and I see a relative.

Monkey: An arboreal animal which makes itself at home in genealogical trees

Biodiversity underpins life on earth. And if we don't look after this biodiversity, if we don't protect it, if we don't actually harness it in the right way, we are threatening our own livelihoods on this planet.

My study of the wild gorilla is not yet finished, and even when it is complete, it will contribute only a small part toward man's understanding of his closest animal relatives, the great apes. But one conclusion is already clear: The gorilla is one of the most maligned animals in the world.

There was no way that I could explain to dogs, friends, or parents my compelling need to return to Africa to launch a long-term study of the gorillas.

As a young boy, I was obsessed with endangered species and the extinct species that men killed off. Biology was the subject in school that I was incredibly passionate about.

I have made my home among the mountain gorillas.

It was their individuality combined with the shyness of their behavior that remained the most captivating impression of this first encounter with the greatest of the great apes.

I cannot concur with those who advocate saving gorillas from extinction by killing and capturing more free-living individuals only to exhibit them in confinement.