The gorilla is threatened with extinction by the mid-21st century if poaching and destruction of its habitat continue at the current rate, the United Nations has warned. Within a decade, three of the four sub-species of the great ape could be wiped out, it says. ‘Many populations are faced with imminent extinction,’ said Matthew Woods, of the UN-run Great Apes Survival Project. ‘It is incredibly serious.’ Conservationists have added a new danger to the ever-present threats from hunting, logging and mining: the fallout from elections to be held at the end of this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the vast central African nation which is probably home to more gorillas than any other country. One sub-species, the eastern lowland, or Grauer’s gorilla, lives entirely within its borders. Two others, the mountain gorilla – famous from Dian Fossey’s studies and David Attenborough’s filmed encounter with them – and the western lowland gorilla, are also found in the DRC. War has raged within eastern Congo for more than a decade, killing more than four million people in the bloodiest conflict since the First World War. Even now, three years after peace deals were signed, 1,200 […]