A gorilla born at an animal park in Kent has become the first in the world to breed with others in the wild.

Silverback Ima was welcomed at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Canterbury in 2002. After being rejected by his parents, he was hand-reared at the site and rewilded in Gabon, Africa, in 2003 as part of the Aspinall Foundation’s Gabon gorilla protection and reintroduction project.

After a year of acclimatisation and habituation, which involved adapting to different food and weather, he was fully released into the wild. He became solitary in October 2019, which is usual for male gorillas.

After this, he was first seen with two wild-born female gorillas in 2021, having successfully attracted them from another silverback’s troop, another world-first for a zoo-born gorilla living in the wild.

Last month, history was made after the monitoring team at the Aspinall Foundation saw him at The Batéké Plateau National Park strolling through the forest with two wild-born female gorillas, both of whom had Ima’s offspring holding onto their backs. This is the first time in history that a zoo-born gorilla has successfully bred with wild gorillas and produced offspring.

Since 1999, The Aspinall Foundation has sent 22 gorillas from its UK partner parks, Howletts Wild Animal Park and Port Lympne Reserve, and two from Beauval Zoo in France, to Gabon.

With the addition of the two babies, the foundation team monitors 42 gorillas across five troops and two solitary silverbacks in Batéké Plateau National Park, an area of around 500,000 acres of lush forest.

Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation said: “This is a big event for me personally as I raised Ima and escorted him out to Gabon back in 2003 when he was just a couple of years old.

“The foundation has been reintroducing gorillas in Congo and Gabon for over 30 years and while we have reintroduced many wild-born gorillas who have given birth, this is the first time a zoo-born has fathered a baby with a wild-born female.

“It is doubly impressive that he has done this twice with two females! This is a huge milestone and one for which we are very proud.”