Nature
PUBLISHED
What's in the water at Virunga National Park? Just a couple of months after welcoming a set of mountain gorilla twins at the start of 2026, another gorilla family in the park has done the same.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.The second pair of twins, thought to be one female and one male, were born just two weeks ago to a mother in the Baraka family at Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The news follows the arrival of twins, both males, in the Bageni family back in January.
All of this is "exceptionally rare”, says the park. Twins aren't the norm in primates – including us humans. Approximately 3 percent of human births are twins globally, and that figure is thought to be even lower in gorillas, somewhere around 1 percent.
The park isn't certain where this sudden spate of twin births has sprung from, but says it's a strong indication that the females are in particularly good health. Another factor might be where these gorillas live in the park, which is abundant in a variety of vegetation and altitudinal ranges, perfectly suited for mountain gorillas to roam and lounge around.
With the latest births, a total of nine new babies have been born within the habituated mountain gorilla population at Virunga in just the first three months of 2026. It's a rare piece of genuinely optimistic news for mountain gorillas, a subspecies of eastern gorilla that’s endangered and only found in a single corridor of Central Africa between the Virunga Massif and Bwindi Forest.
“Two instances of twin births within 3 months is an extraordinary event and provides another vital indicator that dedicated conservation efforts, which have continued despite the current instability in eastern Congo, continue to support the growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population within Virunga National Park,” Jacques Katutu, Head of Gorilla Monitoring at Virunga National Park, said in a statement.
While the double-twin births are welcome additions to the Virunga gorilla population, they come with their own challenges. Gorilla mothers are built to raise one infant at a time, and carrying, nursing, and caring for two simultaneously places enormous strain on them.
That said, the January twins are reportedly thriving, which bodes well for the latest pair. Rangers will continue to keep a cautious eye on the newborns and their mother as they find their feet.
