Jean-Felix Kinani was far from center stage Tuesday when Rwanda held its tenth annual Kwita Izina, the national naming ceremony for baby mountain gorillas born during the past 12 months. Yet the 18 baby gorillas named at the event owe much to his team of veterinarians.

Kinani, 42, is the head Rwanda veterinarian with Gorilla Doctors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the health of the world's 880 remaining mountain gorillas—the iconic animals found in Rwanda, Uganda, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the only great apes on Earth whose numbers are increasing.

Since 2005, when Rwanda's tourism authorities launched the event—adapted from a centuries-old human baby naming tradition—Kinani has witnessed the naming of 163 Rwanda-born primates.

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