THE Democratic Republic of Congo’s mountain gorilla population grew by about 13% in what one primate expert called a “baby boom” even as a rebel conflict forced rangers to flee the park.

Rangers caring for some of the world’s last surviving mountain gorillas in the middle of war-torn Congo have been allowed back into their habitat.

Rebels loyal to a renegade warlord seized an east Congo army base and the headquarters of a park housing some of the world’s last mountain gorillas, in heavy fighting today that sent thousands of civilians fleeing, UN officials and rebels said.

REBELS have seized an area in eastern Congo that serves as a wildlife habitat for endangered mountain gorillas, threatening one of the last known populations of the species, conservationists said Sunday.