Rare twins born in DRC raise cautious hope for endangered mountain gorillas

Mafuko, an endangered mountain gorilla, with her twins in Virunga national park. The newborns must survive disease, poachers’ snares and infanticide but births mark huge conservation success. Photograph: Courtesy of Virunga national park

It was noon by the time Jacques Katutu first saw the newborn mountain gorillas. Cradled in the arms of their mother, Mafuko, the tiny twins clung to her body for warmth in the forest clearing in Virunga national park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring in Virunga, has seen dozens of newborns in his 15 years as a ranger. But, he tells the Guardian, even he was touched by the sight of the fragile infant males, who face serious obstacles if they are to become silverbacks one day.