Twin Peaks

RARE MOUNTAIN GORILLAS 'DOUBLE' JOY

Only a few days into 2026, a wild mountain gorilla named Mafuko has given birth to twin boys in Virunga, Africa's oldest and largest National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)! Virunga National Park, spanning 7,800 sq km from active volcanoes to lakes and rainforest, was set up 100 years ago in a conflict-prone area to specifically protect mountain gorillas.

The twins' birth is an extra happy event because mountain gorillas are endangered, mothers usually give birth to one infant every 4 years, twins are rare (it is thought less than 1%) and the world's entire population of just over 1,000 mountain gorillas resides in just two isolated groups living in nearby high-altitude montane and bamboo forested habitats. One is between the Virunga Mountains, a range of extinct volcanoes that borders the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and the other is in Bwindi National Park in Uganda, that runs alongside DRC's Sarambwe Nature Reserve.

Dedicated community trackers from Virunga National Park observed the event on Saturday 3rd January 2026 and took film of Mafuko hugging her newborns, posting on social media that this first birth of 2026 brings the 'Bageni' family to 59 members, the largest in the Park.

Mafuko herself, born in 2003 lost her own mother to armed attackers when she was four years old but thanks to EU and Unesco backed anti-poaching patrols and community programmes, mountain gorilla numbers in Virunga have slowly increased over the past decade.

Recognising that gorilla infants are highly dependable on their mother and that twins present additional challenges, rangers are keeping an extra watchful eye.

"Additional monitoring and protection measures are now in place to support the twins' health during this critical early period" they said.

Pic credit of Mafuko and twins: Virunga National Park