In the embattled heart of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where war and wilderness meet, an unheralded act of defiance unfolded late last year.
In October 2024, conservationists released four female Grauer’s gorillas—Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo, and Ndjingala—into the wild, marking the largest reintroduction of eastern gorillas in African history, reports Elodie Toto.
The release took place in Mount Tshiaberimu, a remote part of Virunga National Park, home to just eight Grauer’s gorillas at the time.
The newcomers had spent years at GRACE, the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center, having arrived as infants after their families were killed by poachers. Their return to the wild, coordinated by GRACE, Virunga National Park, and partners like Gorilla Doctors and Re:wild, was the result of five years of preparation.
Observers describe the reintroduction as both biological triumph and moral imperative.
“When they met the silverback from the wild group, he had only one other female and an infant,” Katie Fawcett, GRACE’s science director, told Toto. “On New Year’s, it was super exciting—we started to observe mating.”
That behavior is precisely what conservationists had hoped for.
The decision to reintroduce only females was no accident. Grauer’s gorillas follow a harem-based social structure, and adult males rarely integrate into existing groups. The female quartet brings not only social cohesion but also desperately needed genetic diversity. Grauer’s gorillas, the world’s largest primate, have seen their numbers plummet by more than 75% since the 1990s.
The release is also a testament to a broader strategy: placing communities at the center of conservation. Nearly all of GRACE’s staff of 100 come from local villages, particularly among the Indigenous Nandi people.
“We recruited the caregivers and trained them at GRACE,” said Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, GRACE’s DRC director. “So they will be both caregivers and ambassadors—raising awareness within their own families.”
Yet hope walks a narrow path. Virunga is under the de facto control of M23, a rebel group linked to Rwanda. Deforestation, poaching, and instability continue to threaten the fragile recovery. In March 2025, park authorities found a young gorilla caught in a poacher’s trap.
Still, the released gorillas are adapting. Nesting, foraging, even mating—each act a small triumph in a region long defined by violence.
For now, they are alive. And perhaps, soon, they will not be alone.
