Lulingu’s Extraordinary Journey

In February 2016, wildlife authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo rescued a baby gorilla who had been taken from the forest and offered for sale by poachers. Her name was Lulingu, and she was only about 18 months old.

At that age, a young gorilla would normally still be living close to her mother. Lulingu had been separated from her family and needed people to care for her until she was strong enough to join other gorillas.

After receiving medical attention, she eventually arrived at the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center, better known as GRACE, in June 2016. The sanctuary specialized in caring for rescued Grauer’s gorillas, and Lulingu was one of the youngest it had ever received.

The Mother She Needed

Two experienced caregivers, Devotte Kavira Kihira and Kambale Muviri, took responsibility for Lulingu during her five-month quarantine. They looked after her around the clock, making sure she was healthy, eating properly and becoming comfortable in her new surroundings.

But there was something else they wanted for her. They hoped she could eventually live with other gorillas and perhaps even return to the wild. For that to happen, she needed to grow up learning from her own kind.

That’s where Pinga came in.

Pinga was an adult female gorilla living at the sanctuary. When staff introduced her to Lulingu, she immediately scooped the youngster into her arms and began carrying her. The caregivers watched as Pinga took on the role of a protective mother almost instantly.

Other female gorillas were interested in the newcomer, but Pinga became her main caregiver. She carried Lulingu, stayed close to her and helped her become part of the larger gorilla family.

For a baby who had been taken from her own mother, she now had another one looking after her.

Learning to Be a Wild Gorilla

Lulingu adapted quickly to life with the other gorillas. Within days of joining the group, she was exploring GRACE’s 24-acre forest enclosure, climbing trees and looking for food alongside her new family.

Staff were especially impressed by how naturally she behaved in the forest. On her first day in the habitat, she climbed a tree, ate fruit and even built a nest on her own. Despite everything that had happened to her, she still knew how to do many of the things a wild gorilla needed to survive.

Over the following years, she learned more by watching the others. She became familiar with the group’s social rules, how to find food and how to move through the forest. Pinga and the other gorillas helped her develop the skills she hadn’t been able to learn from her original family.

The sanctuary gave her years to grow, and eventually the conservation team believed she might be ready for a much bigger change.

A Return to the Wild

At the end of 2024, Lulingu traveled to Mount Tshiaberimu in Virunga National Park with three other female gorillas from GRACE: Isangi, Mapendo and Ndjingala. The four females were placed in a special rewilding facility surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of the mountain forest. Conservation teams could keep an eye on them while giving them a chance to become familiar with their new environment.

A wild silverback named Mwasa soon began showing interest in the females. He approached the enclosure and interacted with them through the barrier. Over time, the encounters gave the conservation team confidence that the gorillas might be able to live together.

Then, on December 3, 2024, something the sanctuary had been working toward for years finally happened. The four females voluntarily left the rewilding facility and followed Mwasa into the forest.

They became the first gorillas from GRACE to be returned to the wild. Conservation teams continued checking on the animals almost daily. By March 2025, veterinary teams reported that all nine Grauer’s gorillas living in the two groups on Mount Tshiaberimu were in good health and hadn’t required medical treatment.

The four females were finding food, traveling, resting and grooming alongside the wild gorillas. Lulingu had also formed a close relationship with Mwasa, and the two were observed mating.

A New Baby on the Mountain

On May 21, 2026, Lulingu gave birth to a baby girl. Field teams later found her holding the tiny newborn against her body, caring for her in the same mountain forest where she had been released.

The baby was healthy, and conservation teams confirmed that Mwasa was the father. Lulingu had successfully joined a wild gorilla family and was now raising an infant of her own.

It was wonderful news for the conservation teams. Grauer’s gorillas are critically endangered and live only in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The population on Mount Tshiaberimu is especially small and isolated, so the arrival of a healthy newborn was a welcome addition.

The people who had cared for Lulingu throughout her life could now watch her nursing, cradling and protecting her daughter. Ten years after being rescued as a frightened infant, she was doing the very thing her caregivers had once hoped she would get the chance to do.

Years earlier, Pinga had picked up little Lulingu and held her in her arms.

Now, high on Mount Tshiaberimu, Lulingu was holding a baby of her own.