Gorilla Wars

A civil war spills into one of the last sanctuaries for Africa's great apes

IF SEVERAL HUNDRED REBEL INSURGENTS SUDDENLY decide to do battle in a wildlife preserve filled with apes, is this guerrilla warfare or gorilla warfare? That's a tough question now that Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, home to half the world's surviving population of African mountain gorillas (large, hairy herbivores) has been overrun by guerrillas (somewhat smaller omnivores in camouflage with machine guns).

The rebels who seized control of the park are Tutsis, an ethnic group trying to reclaim land they lost more than three decades ago during a civil war with Rwanda's majority Hutu tribe. The marauding insurgents have threatened the lives...

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