{"id":56795,"date":"2026-01-09T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/rare-mountain-gorilla-twins-born-at-virunga-national-park\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:33:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:33:47","slug":"rare-mountain-gorilla-twins-born-at-virunga-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/rare-mountain-gorilla-twins-born-at-virunga-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare mountain gorilla twins born at Virunga National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The twins, both males, were discovered on Saturday, January 3, 2026, by community trackers, who observed 22-year-old female Mafuko cradling her newborns. The park confirmed that \u201cboth appeared to be in healthy condition at the time of the observation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Twin births among mountain gorillas are exceptionally uncommon, occurring in roughly 1% of all births, and require extra care, as newborns rely entirely on their mother for survival during the first months of life. The last birth of mountain gorilla twins in Virunga National Park was in September 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The birth of the twins increases the Bageni gorilla family to 59 individuals, making it the largest family in the park.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis birth of twins constitutes the first birth recorded in 2026 at the Park. Twin births among mountain gorillas are rare and present additional challenges, particularly during the early months,&#8221; the park noted:<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said that \u201cadditional monitoring and protection measures will be deployed to closely observe the twins and support their health and survival during this critical early period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Virunga National Park, Africa\u2019s oldest and largest protected area, spans 7,800 square kilometers of rainforest, mountains, lakes, and active volcanoes. The park is home to fewer than 1,100 mountain gorillas, which are found only in Virunga and in neighbouring national parks in Rwanda and Uganda.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-100396 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/female-mafuko-and-twins-bageni-family-e1767700364260.jpg\" alt=\"The twins, both males, were discovered on Saturday by community trackers, who observed 22-year-old female Mafuko cradling her newborns. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conservationists at Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have celebrated the birth of twin mountain gorillas, a rare and significant event for the endangered species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000100397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-56795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000100397,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-09-jan-2026-03-33-pm-8696.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000100397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56795"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=56795"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=56795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}