Breaking News – Rwanda records rare twin birth of mountain gorillas

MOUNTAIN GORILLA TWINS BORN

Good news were received this morning from a regular source in Kigali. Trackers and rangers in close contact with the ‘Hirwa Group’ have reported that one of the females, named Kabatwa, had given birth to a set of twins. This is a very rare event indeed, the last one witnessed 7 years ago in 2004 and therefore significant to conservationists dealing with mountain gorillas.

The two young babies are due to be named during the annual Kwita Izina festival, when every year in June new born gorillas are given names by specially selected invited guests. The festival, originally held ‘just for the naming’ has in the meantime grown to become a weeklong celebration of the mountain gorillas and of conservation, and seminars, workshops, lectures, sporting events and conservation activities are now part and parcel of Kwita Izina.

Sources within RDB – Tourism and Conservation, have also confirmed that special protective measures have been put into place immediately to ensure that ‘mother and babies’ are and will remain fine and that national park veterinarians have already visited the site to ascertain the status of the twins and mother. All the best of course to ‘Kabatwa’ who has undoubtedly scored a PR hit of the highest order for her ‘native country’.