AssetID: 55743230
Headline: One-armed gorilla gives birth to baby after two decades of tragedy
Caption: BY MARK WORGAN A western lowland gorilla whose arm had to be amputated after an encounter with a snare has given birth to a baby after decades of living with her disability. Lengui, was recorded with her infant in the Lesio-Louna gorilla reserve, according to The Aspinall Foundation and the Congolese Ministry of Forest Economy. Her baby is thought to have been born around Valentine’s Day and appears to be in good health. Lengui’s remarkable life story spans more than two decades of survival, injury and rehabilitation, including the loss of her arm after a snare wound became infected. She was first orphaned at around 18 months old after her mother was caught in a snare. Too small to be of commercial value, she was initially kept alive by locals before her rescue team reached her. When she was found, she was transported in a makeshift basket and given water mixed with honey. She was later taken to the Brazzaville Gorilla Orphanage, run by The Aspinall Foundation, where she arrived in April 1994 weighing just 5kg — far below the expected weight for her age. Lengui was later rehabilitated, temporarily evacuated during civil conflict, and eventually returned to the wild. However, tragedy struck again in 2002 when she became caught in another snare. The injury was so severe that veterinarians were forced to amputate her arm below the elbow. Despite this, she became one of the first gorillas successfully reintroduced into the wild. Tony King, The Aspinall Foundation’s Reintroduction Coordinator, first documented Lengui’s story in 2005. “The amputation was still fresh in my mind,” King recounts now, “I concluded back then that Lengui hoped finally to live in peace and security, free from hunters and their snares, with the opportunity to recreate the family atmosphere she would have vaguely remembered from the first months of her life in a wild gorilla group in north-west Congo. She was present for the first-ever birth to reintroduced gorillas, in 2004, but it wasn’t hers - she never really chose the silverback in that group, they were rehabilitated together, she probably considered him more of a brother to her. She was waiting for another chance.” For long periods she avoided human contact and, at times, disappeared from monitoring entirely. “She even disappeared completely for over four years” King recalls, “shying away from contact with people, clearly understanding that we were responsible, to some extent or other, for amputating her hand.” Recent camera-trap footage reviewed by researchers shows Lengui moving with a small group led by a young silverback named Elonga, alongside other females who have also been seen with newborns. By late 2025, researchers believed Lengui was heavily pregnant. Confirmation came only in April, when field researcher Elie Djoli Camara reported she had been filmed on 21 February with a newborn estimated to be around a week old. “It’s wonderful news, and another chapter in Lengui’s remarkable life story,” he said. Researchers say direct observation of the reintroduced gorillas is rare, with most information gathered from motion-sensor camera traps. “Time will tell whether Lengui succeeds a second time to raise her baby,” Camara said. “We just have to wait, month by month, for any snippets of information the camera traps can provide… and then piece that information together, like a jigsaw, over time.” Further monitoring is expected to increase following additional support for the project, which aims to expand camera coverage across the reserve. Amos Courage, Director of Overseas Projects at The Aspinall Foundation, said Lengui’s experience highlights both the progress and ongoing risks facing gorillas in the wild. “Lengui’s story is unique in many ways” he says, “and yet there are still gorillas being orphaned today, taken from the wild, and trafficked around the world. We remain committed to providing those that are rescued with the opportunity to return to the wild. We hope Lengui’s story, and those of many others also successfully rewilded over several decades in partnership with the governments of Congo and Gabon, will help inform and inspire authorities the world over to do what it takes to return trafficked gorillas to the forests of their birth.”
Keywords: feature,photo,video,gorilla,tragedy,africa,congo,nature,natural world
PersonInImage: