A wild mountain gorilla named Mafuko has given birth to twins in a Democratic Republic of Congo national park.
The twins are male and both appeared to be healthy, staff from Virunga National Park said.
Community trackers responsible for monitoring the health of the mountain gorilla population in the park discovered the "rare and remarkable" birth of twins in the Bageni family of mountain gorillas on January 3.
It increases the Bageni family to 59 gorillas, the largest in the park.
Rare and endangered
Twins are rare in mountain gorillas and present additional challenges, particularly during the early months when infants are entirely dependent on their mother for care and transport.
Virunga National Park said it would provide additional monitoring and protection measures to closely observe the twins and support their health and survival during this critical early period.
At the age of 22, Mafuko has given birth to a total of seven newborns, including a set of twins in 2016, who died a week after birth.
The world's entire population of just over 1,000 endangered mountain gorillas resides between the Virunga Mountains, a range of extinct volcanoes that border the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and Bwindi Forest.
The protected forests of Virunga National Park are home to more than one-third of the global population.
Conservation efforts continue
The birth of these twins represents a major event for the dynamics of the Bageni family and for ongoing conservation efforts to support the continued growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population within Virunga National Park.
Since the discovery of the mountain gorilla, a subspecies of the eastern gorilla, in 1902, its population has endured war, hunting, habitat destruction and disease — threats so severe that it was once thought the species would be extinct by the end of the 20th century.
But thanks to conservation efforts and ranger patrols to cut down on illegal poaching, the species is recovering.
The recovery of mountain gorilla populations, despite ongoing civil conflict, poaching, and habitat loss, is a huge conservation achievement.
According to the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, there are 44 habituated mountain gorilla families across Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC.
Family groups range in size, with an average of 10 family members.
Mountain gorillas live in forests high in the mountains and have thicker and more fur than other great apes, which helps them to survive in a habitat where temperatures often drop below freezing.
But, as humans have moved more into the gorillas' territory, they have been pushed further up into the mountains for longer periods, forcing them to endure dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions.
