A pair of twin mountain gorillas has been born in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – a rare occurrence for the endangered primates, conservationists at Virunga National Park say.
The community trackers, who discovered 22-year-old Mafuko hugging her newborns on Saturday, said the mother and her two baby sons all appeared to be well and healthy.
Twin births are thought to account for about 1% of all mountain gorilla births, though exact data is not widely available.
Virunga, situated in a conflict-prone part of DR Congo, is Africa’s oldest and largest national park and was set up 100 years ago to protect mountain gorillas of which there are fewer than 1,100 left in the wild.
By James Kisoo
