Endangered mountain gorilla population boosted by rare newborn twins

Meet the cutest new arrivals at the Virunga National Park - two very rare mountain gorilla twins.

Born to mum Mafuko, these two male mountain gorillas are part of a big step forward for the subspecies.

Mountain gorillas are listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, which means that they face a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

So when these two babies were discovered by community trackers at the start of the year, it was some much-needed good news for these gorillas.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a wildlife protection group, say that there's just over 1,000 mountain gorillas left around the world.

They've faced lots of threats like hunting, disease, and having their homes destroyed, but the new arrivals are an encouraging sign.

At the Virugna National Park, which is in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa, Mafuko's new twins are part of the story.

Around half of mountain gorillas live in the Virunga Mountains, including Mafuko's family - the Bageni family.

Thanks to the newborn twins, the Bageni family now has 59 members, making it the largest family in the park.

The team at Virunga say it's a huge step forward:

"The birth of these twins represents a major event for the dynamics of the Bageni family and for ongoing conservation efforts to support the continued growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population within Virunga National Park."