A mountain gorilla rests Tuesday in the Virunga National Park, near the Uganda border in eastern Congo. The director of Virunga Park says rangers who fled fighting between rebels and soldiers are returning to protect its endangered mountain gorillas.

Virunga National Park, Congo ? Deep in the rebel-held forests of Congo, a world away from this Central African nation’s latest fighting, a wild 440-pound mountain gorilla serenely rips a meal of bamboo stalks from the moist, dark earth.

The primordial scene is a rare window into the lives of some of the world’s last mountain gorillas. They unfold in a habitat on the edge of a war zone that until now has been overseen by renegade rangers who stayed behind when rebels seized control of these jungle foothills in late 2007.

Now, a breakthrough deal between the insurgents and President Joseph Kabila’s administration has paved the way for staff who fled fighting and the rebel occupation to return to the gorilla sector of Virunga National Park for the first time in 15 months.

Rangers and scientists from the Congolese Wildlife Authority have entered the apes’ habitat for the first time since fleeing last year. They found one gorilla family — kicking off a monthlong census that will give the world its first comprehensive glimpse at the status and health of the highly endangered animals.

“We are extremely pleased that all sides in this conflict accept the importance of protecting Virunga’s gorilla sector,” said Emmanuel de Merode, the park’s Belgian director and the man who pushed the breakthrough deal.

Congo has grabbed world headlines in recent weeks because of fighting that exploded in August between government forces and Laurent Nkunda’s rebels, unleashing a humanitarian catastrophe that forced more than 250,000 people from their homes.

Ironically, the latest clashes may have been a good thing for the gorillas. Previously, the frontline had run right through the middle of the apes’ habitat. But in October, rebels pushed the frontline dozens of miles away, making the area safer for the animals.

Over the last year, government forces had repeatedly set up mortars and multiple rocket launchers on a main road — now controlled by rebels — that cut through the park.

“They were firing bombs into the park, destroying the forest and the gorillas’ natural habitat,” said Pierre-Canisius Kanamahalagi, identified as being in charge of park affairs for the rebels.

Only about 700 mountain gorillas are left in the world.