The International Primate Protection has worked on this issue since we were made aware of the arrival of the baby gorillas at Taiping Zoo in Malaysia.
Baby gorillas are taken from the wild by shooting their mother and then removing the babies from her chest. The same thing happens to baby orang-utans and chimpanzees.
IPPL obtained copies of all export permits, airline waybills, an assortment of false documents, including CITES permits, which stated that the gorillas were born in a Nigerian Zoo rather than being removed from the wild, which they certainly were. Documents were uncovered which implicated Nigeria in the smuggling plans. The particular species of gorilla is native to Cameroon where they were certainly caught before being smuggled across the border to Nigeria, from where they were sent to Taiping on South African Airways,
IPPL still working to try to get the animals sent to Limbe in Cameroon, a first-rate primate sanctuary run by really dedicated people. They are now in a South African zoo which has had a poor record of gorilla husbandry. South Africa shipped the babies through their country during the original trip to Malaysia. The authorities in South Africa appear never to have questioned the false permits. It seems unfair that a country which was a party to this illegal trade has been permitted to keep the animals. It also seems unfair that Taiping Zoo was given any say in sending these gorillas to Pretoria. The innocent country, Cameroon seems to be the big loser.
This could cost many gorillas their lives in the future. Zoos all over the world want to own gorillas, so rewarding zoos for being involved in an international smuggling incident sets a very poor precedent.
Let's hope that this New York Times story raises awareness and that the four young gorillas will be returned to their native land.
Jean
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/international/africa/10gorilla.html
Cameroon vs. South Africa in the Battle of the Gorillas
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: May 10, 2005
PRETORIA, May 4 - Where does a 600-pound gorilla sleep?
Cameroon's government says South Africa's government knows the right
answer. But for two years, South Africa seemed not to have heard the
question. Since acknowledging it last December, South Africa's Science
Ministry has offered one reply and its Environment Ministry another, and
each contradicts the other.
At the Pretoria zoo, four gorillas smuggled from Cameroon to Malaysia were
first housed in a glass enclosure. Cameroon wants them back.
After weeks in the enclosed space, the gorillas were transferred to an
outdoor pavilion. Cameroon hopes to return the animals to the wild.
Only two things are clear: the gorilla - actually, four Western Lowland
gorillas - are sleeping at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa,
in Pretoria, in what it calls a "state-of-the-art, world-class facility"
that is receiving its final flourishes.
And despite Cameroon's claim on the gorillas, the zoo has no intention of
giving them up.
Cynics suggest that South Africa's extended pondering of the gorilla
question was intended to permit the zoo to build its gorilla house and
claim permanent ownership of what is, in the zoo world, the Mona Lisa of
exhibits.
Malicious slander, the zoo's executive director, Willie Labuschagne, said
in an interview.
"We've done it for protecting the animals," he said. "It will not happen in
my lifetime that any assumed increase in visitors will defray the capital
expenditure on this investment."
The four gorillas, stolen as babies and smuggled to Malaysia before being
surrendered a year ago, are the prize in a protracted custody battle
involving South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria and much of the international
wildlife conservation community.
Mr. Labuschagne says the overriding issue is how best to save the
endangered Lowland gorilla, whose Central African habitat is being gobbled
up by loggers and whose numbers have been decimated by the deadly Ebola
virus. Breeding programs in zoos like his, he says, are the only solution.
But Cameroon officials and some wildlife activists, led by the chimpanzee
expert Jane Goodall, roundly disagree. The issue, they say, is whether any
zoo should reap a benefit from smuggling vanishing species - and whether
the gorillas, which apparently come from Cameroon, should not have a chance
to return to their home.
"We have proof that they came from our forests," said Mary Fosi Mbantenkhu,
an adviser in Cameroon's Environment Ministry who is seeking the gorillas'
return. "South Africa and Cameroon belong to several conventions, and we
know the obligations of each party to the conventions."
Refusing to return smuggled animals, she said, is "condoning those who
engage in illegal exploitation, and we know they don't want that reputation."
Western Lowland gorillas are avidly sought by zoos, both for their crowd
appeal and as part of the zoos' conservation mission. Males weigh as much
as 600 pounds and boast eight-foot arm spans; females are about half as heavy.
As many as 110,000 lived recently in Cameroon, Congo and nearby nations,
but logging, a thriving trade in gorilla meat and especially the Ebola
pandemic have sharply reduced their numbers.
The Pretoria gorillas, known to wildlife activists as the Taiping Four,
were apparently captured in Cameroon in late 2001, taken to a zoo in
neighboring Nigeria, then shipped to Taiping Zoo in Malaysia, via South
Africa. Such deals are barred under the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species, or Cites, but Nigerian officials used forged Cites
documents and veterinary certificates to assist the smuggling.
The International Primate Protection League, which battles smuggling of
endangered apes, unmasked the deal a few months later, and the Taiping Zoo
agreed to return them to a place chosen by Cites officials.
To Cameroon's astonishment, that place was the Pretoria zoo, which had
lobbied Cites officials and Malaysian zookeepers with the backing of the
World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The Cites treaty states explicitly, "Where the country of origin desires
the return of the animals, this desire should be respected." But the
statement is in a nonbinding annex, and requests for the animals' return to
Cameroon went unheeded.
Gorillas in hand, South Africa's government talked with Cameroon for nine
months about their repatriation, until December, when the Environment
Ministry said a committee would oversee the animals' return within six
months. Five months later, the committee has not been formed.
The ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Labuschagne, the zoo director, said that in any event, the ministry's
opinion did not count. "I take my instructions from the National Research
Foundation," he said, and that is part of the Ministry of Science and
Technology.
The International Primate Protection League claims that the Pretoria zoo is
ill prepared to care for gorillas. Two baby gorillas there died in 1989 and
1990, and at least two apes died in 1997 and 1998 in their mid-20's, an age
well below the 35 to 40 years that experts say a captive gorilla usually
lives. The sole remaining gorilla is about 30.
Mr. Labuschagne said, however, that autopsy reports on the dead gorillas
were reviewed and approved by Malaysian authorities before the gorilla deal
was struck.
Cameroon and most wildlife groups want the gorillas sent to the Limbe
Wildlife Center in Cameroon, which rehabilitates stolen gorillas with the
hope of returning them to the wild. The center has revamped its facilities
in anticipation of their arrival.
In April more than 40 primate experts led by Ms. Goodall issued an open
letter asking the South African government to send the apes to the reserve
as "the ideal destination" for their rehabilitation.
Ms. Fosi Mbantenkhu, the Cameroon official, said she believed that would
happen. In three meetings with South African officials, she said, "South
Africa has given us assurances that Cameroon will have the animals back
before June."
Shirley McGreal, founder of the International Primate Protection League,
which is based in South Carolina, is more doubtful. "He's obstinate as
heck," she said of Mr. Labuschagne. "He's got his trophy, and I don't think
he's going to let go."
Mr. Labuschagne said wildlife groups should stop their "onslaught" against
his zoo and instead work with it to promote breeding programs that will
help the Lowland gorilla prosper.
"They should pool their resources and join forces with the national zoo so
that, together, we can ensure the future survival of these gentle giants,"
he said.
Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chairwoman
International Primate Protection League
PO Box 766
Summerville, SC 29484, USA
Phone - 843-871-2280, Fax- 843-871-7988
E-mail - smcgreal@ippl.org, Web: www.ippl.org