Camera Trap Captures One-Armed Gorilla Raising Newborn in the Wild

One-armed gorilla Lengui is seen in camera trap footage cradling her newborn. | Image credit: The Aspinall Foundation

Camera trap footage has revealed that a one-armed gorilla — who twice nearly lost her life to illegal snaring in Africa — has defied the odds to become a mother in the wild.

Conservationists at the Aspinall Foundation recently discovered camera trap footage showing Lengui — a western lowland gorilla who has one arm — carrying her newborn through the forest at the Lésio-Louna Reserve in the Republic of Congo.

The footage, recorded on February 21, showed Lengui cradling a baby estimated to be around one week old against her chest. The Aspinall Foundation said researchers only discovered the birth recently because cameras at the reserve are checked every six weeks.

Tony King, the charity’s reintroduction coordinator, reviewed footage collected from a network of 20 motion-sensor cameras across the Lésio-Louna Reserve, which was established to support a reintroduced gorilla population. Camera trap footage captured at the end of 2025 suggested Lengui was heavily pregnant. When researchers reviewed footage again in April 2026, they found new images recorded months earlier showing her with a healthy newborn believed to have been born around Valentine’s Day.

Lengui 1998 in Pointe Noire by Amos Courage | Image credit: The Aspinall Foundation.

Lengui is now just over 30 years old and nearing the end of her reproductive lifespan, according to the foundation. Her age and the partial loss of her arm may make raising a baby more difficult, although researchers described her as determined after seeing her carrying the infant in the crook of her remaining right arm.

King tells BBC News that Lengui has a “remarkable” history that demonstrated her “incredible will” to survive. When Lengui was around 18 months old, her mother was caught in a snare, leaving her, in King’s words, “helpless as an orphan.”

King says Lengui was “too small to be eaten by humans or sell as smoked meat,” so hunters tied her to a stake and brought fruit to keep her alive, possibly intending to sell her as a pet. She was later rescued by a team from Odzala National Park in Congo-Brazzaville.

Lengui spotted on a camera trap in 2018 | Image credit: © The Aspinall Foundation Madagascar

In April 1994, Lengui was rehabilitated at the Brazzaville Gorilla Orphanage, run by The Aspinall Foundation, before eventually being returned to the wild. However, in April 2002, Lengui was caught in another snare. Veterinarians found that the wire had cut through her palm to the bone and that infection had spread to her wrist. To save her life, vets amputated her arm below the elbow. After recovering, Lengui was released back into the wild for a second time.

“Having endured such trauma in her early life, we’re pleased to see Lengui is continuing to live life to the full,” King tells BBC News.

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