Twin Mountain Gorillas Born in Rwanda at the Volcanoes National Park

The newborn mountain gorillas came to the world at the start of 2016 at the Volcanoes National Park. The gorillas looked in good health than ever at almost 120 days old.

The news of the newborn gorillas was received with enthusiasm and joy among the wildlife conservationists, local communities, government of Rwanda and tourists among others. In short, such newborns ensure the stable and steady future of gorilla tourism in Rwanda. Records also show that tourists love trekking gorilla groups with young ones and silver backs in them.

A mother gorilla and its twin young ones

The mother gorilla, Isaro is the one that gave birth to the young ones and seemed to have developed a vigorous resilient bond with her.

Trackers at the park said the baby gorillas are suckling recurrently and have advanced the thick hair wool at an earlier age

The twins who were first identified in January this year at just two days old, were hardly separate from their affectionate and defensive mum Isaro

Body-hugging warmly to their mom, the minors looked fit and in good physical shape with their characteristic coats emerging attractively and thick tops of hair propagating from the upper of their heads.

The twin’s sex is not known yet due to fact that trackers from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund have not managed to get closer enough to reach a vivid conclusion. They also appear to have grown in identical sizes, meaning that Isaro is doing an authentic job in breastfeeding and caring for them.

Since mountain gorillas are disparagingly in danger of extinction with less than 900 remaining in the world, the infants have conveyed renewed optimism to the gorilla populace.

Didier Abavandimwe, a Research assistant and one among the first personnel to eyewitness the twins, he couldn’t believe his eyes because since he had never experienced such an astonishing happening in the gorilla groups they monitor  from the time he started employment with Dian Fossey Fund in 2009.

‘When I saw the twins, I knew at heart that birth of Isaro’s duo was a benediction for everybody who works extremely hard for the existence of mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Isabukuru group in particular. The birth of new gorillas is a reward, an inspiration an enthusiasm to the mountain gorilla conservation,’ said Abavandimwe.

Giving birth to twins among the mountain gorilla fraternity is a rare occurrence. Out of about or more than 270 births recorded in the Karisoke gorilla families for a period of the last 50 years, there are just only three that have produced twins.

In the year 1986, the first set of twins were produced and only survived for nine days. Whereas those born in the year 2008 died on the actual day they were born due to infanticide. Among the gorilla groups the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) monitors, there have been three sets of twins, out of which two sets survived.

Some of Isaro’s main challenges in the initial days following the twins’ delivery were keeping up with the group, as mommies ordinarily use their arms to care for the infants up to when they are robust enough to grip on firmly on their own.

With her twins, Isaro occasionally wanted to utilize her arms to ensure the infants were protected well, a thing that could make rambling tough.

On her part, the gorilla program manager Veronica Vecellio, said the delivery of the twins was a gift in several ways.

She for the beauty of nature, the delivery reminded the community how susceptible and valuable mountain gorillas were considering the dedication of Isaro in such a wild environment with twins to take care of them.

“This is an uncommon chance to witness watchfully the motherly venture and to liken with single-born and the other living twins. On Isaro’s part, every day is a challenge to bringing them up. We certainly hope the newborns will do well in the subtle epoch of their lifetime,” Vecellio said.

Isaro is a 16-year old mother with also a 6-year old and a 3-year-old and is bringing up their newborn twins with the assistance of Isabukuru, their beloved father.

A research manager at Karisoke, one Winnie Eckardt also asserted that Isaro was lucky and could count on lots of help by the father,  Isabukuru in raising the gorilla twins. Of all the silver backs, Isabukuru is among the most aggressively caring dad in infant care of all the silver backs. Isaro’s older daughter, Keza is also looking to get maternal skills from her experienced mother.

The gorilla twins will be given names during the 12th annual Kwita Izina ceremony to be held later this year in Rwanda.

The twelve-monthly baby gorilla naming formality is a platform for raising awareness of the shortage of mountain gorillas and also for promoting Rwanda as a tourism destination in Africa.