Safe in the misty mountains of war-ravaged Rwanda, a tiny miracle has brought a story that began 20 years ago full circle. It was then that Sir David Attenborough astonished and delighted viewers with film of that troubled country's famous gorillas, sitting among them as they ate and played.

Now that same gorilla group has been re-visited, this time by beautiful 33-year-old expert Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek, the BBC's newest natural history star. She arrived to news of an exciting birth.

Gorillas there have had to battle for survival through war, trophy hunters and trappers, she explains. Yet we found one amazing mother with her baby, despite having lost her foot in a snare. She was very, very protective and had her arms wrapped round the new-born, so we just got tiny, little peeps. For us this baby gorilla was a very positive sign - a good omen for the future of the gorilla population in that region.

Film of the mother and baby are just one of the highlights in Dr Uhlenbroek's extraordinary BBC series Cousins, in which this passionate-about-primates expert reveals the strong links we have with our hairier friends.

Often risking life and limb, 33-year-old Dr Uhlenbroek shows her dedication and enthusiasm around the globe in a shooting schedule that lasted 20 months and took her to some of the world's most remote regions.

She is quite a find. Managing to look like a film star, even in jeans and with her dark hair scraped back in an elastic band, she is no mere front woman. Born in London, her father was an agricultural specialist with the United Nations and the family moved to Ghana when she was just 10 days old. From five to 14, she lived in Kathmandu, in Nepal. I used to wander the streets trying to rescue stray dogs, she confesses. We ended up with an extraordinary menagerie, dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea pigs. Kathmandu still seems to be the closest place to home. It remains very important to me but I admit I've also been bitten by the Africa bug.

That bug bit deeply when she spent four years in the forests of Gombe in Tanzania studying the behaviour of chimpanzees, under the world-famous Jane Goodall. That was after gaining a joint honours degree in Zoology and Psychology from Bristol University and a PhD in Animal Communications.

Her time in Tanzania was spent living in a tiny hut on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and she spent her days just like Dr Doolittle talking to the animals. She even demonstrates gorilla etiquette.

When you approach a group it's good manners to grunt to let them know you are coming, she explains. She even manages to mimic the language of Ethiopian baboons.

They make a kind of mmmmm!...ahhhh!...mmmm! noise and they obviously like a good gossip. They are constantly talking and keeping in touch with each other with these extraordinary sounds. It's an amazing experience to see and hear this moaning, sighing sea of animals. Eager to show her favourite creatures at their best Dr Uhlenbroek even agreed to approach them at their level 150ft up in the tree canopy of Thailand. Given a hard hat and a harness she was able to get rid of a pain in her neck.

I have spent a lot of time standing on the ground, looking up getting neck-ache watching primates, she laughs. To actually get up there in their world was extraordinary, even though it was really scary the first few times.

I was hoisted up into the canopy and then left there to dangle. It was quite an act of faith just trusting that all the knots were secure. But, seeing the gibbons in the natural habitat, I soon completely forgot how far up I was.

In Japan she discovers macaques monkeys who luxuriate in their own health club. The hot springs are just like a monkey health spa, like walking into a Jacuzzi filled with people - only wearing fur coats.

They lounge around the springs, with their eyes half closed, some of them grooming, a bit of gossip going on and some completely crashed out. The young ones, of course, dive-bomb the pool. It's just very, very human. Dr Uhlenbroek even found that lemurs in Madagascar have a weird and wonderful way of getting high. They rub themselves all over with giant, brown millipedes that they bite to release a chemical, she reveals. It seems to drive them into a frenzy. They drool with pleasure and rub the millipedes vigorously through their fur. Nobody knows why, but judging by the spaced out expression on their faces, it may be they just can't get enough of the stuff.

She obviously can't get enough of our primate cousins. Even describing an incident in Rwanda where she was almost attacked by a gorilla, her reaction is positive.

It is perhaps a great privilege to be kicked and pushed over by mountain gorillas. I wasn't really frightened because I could see that they wouldn't really hurt me. It was just a friendly bash from teenage gorillas who don't have BMXs to play with, so they have to keep themselves amused in other ways.

Now Bristol-based Dr Uhlenbroek has become even closer to the gorilla group, especially after being introduced to the baby of the family and having it named in honour of herself and the film crew. They decided to call it BBC, she explains with a grin. But, in Rwandan I think that translates as the beans are soaking, which doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Cousins is on BBC1 on Wednesdays at 7pm.