The Taiping Zoo gorillas

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Zookeepers in Nigeria confirm endangered apes captured from wild

Fri May 31,10:34 AM ET

 

By GLENN McKENZIE, Associated Press Writer

 

IBADAN, Nigeria - Four young gorillas flown to Malaysia for apparent display

in a government-funded zoo had been captured illegally in the forests of

central Africa, keepers confirmed Friday at a Nigerian zoo that they said

serves as a way station for captured wild primates.

 

" If anyone else wants more gorillas, we can get them some more, " zookeeper

Olalekan Akanji told The Associated Press at the University of Ibadan

Zoological Gardens about 120 kilometers (70 miles) north of the commercial

capital of Lagos. " But they are very expensive. "

 

Conservation groups call the case one of the most troubling of a burgeoning

international smuggling trade threatening Africa's great apes with

extinction.

 

The case — following one in September that ended with Egyptian authorities

drowning an allegedly smuggled baby gorilla from Nigeria in a vat of

chemicals — has international wildlife preservation groups pressing for

investigation into what they say appear to be

flagrant violations of worldwide protection accords.

 

Selling or trading apes caught in the wild is banned under the Convention on

International Trade of Endangered Species, or CITES, which permits only

those born in captivity to be exchanged for noncommercial purposes.

 

Four young gorillas in the latest case — listed as aged between 18 and 48

months — turned up at Malaysia's Taiping Zoo in January.

 

Officials at Taiping Zoo, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur,

have denied any impropriety and insisted the apes were born in captivity at

a zoo in Nigeria and therefore subject to being traded.

 

They repeatedly refused to identify the zoo from which they say the animals

came. Officials at the Malaysia zoo rejected recent requests from The

Associated Press for on-the-record comment.

 

Conservationists say there are no known captive breeding programs for

gorillas anywhere in Africa — a strong indication these four gorillas were

illegally obtained in the wild.

 

Copies of export permits for two of the gorillas, named Abbey and Alice,

state that the animals were captive-bred.

 

The documents, viewed by The Associated Press, were signed with the name of

a senior Nigerian government official. The signature could not be

independently verified.

 

Nigerian authorities declined comment beyond saying the Environment Ministry

is investigating.

 

Akanji, the zookeeper, said the gorillas " came from the jungle in Cameroon "

and then spent several months at the zoo last year before flying to

Malaysia.

 

Akanji said he bottle-fed the young apes milk and sugar water, and even

taught one to ride a tricycle.

 

Asked if the zoo ever had other baby gorillas intended for trade, he said

" Yes, there have been many but a lot of them died. " Other workers at the zoo

gave similar accounts.

 

Nigerian wildlife groups called Friday for the animals' return from

Malaysia.

 

" This is clearly a case of smuggling ... and the only real question should

be who is responsible, " said Muhtari Aminu-Kano, executive director of the

Nigeria Conservation Foundation, an affiliate of the World Wildlife Fund.

Marceil Yeater, a CITES official in Geneva, said the convention had asked

Nigerian and Malaysian officials to " answer questions " about the case. She

added, however, that it was " too early to draw conclusions. "

 

Great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos — once ranged widely from

Senegal on Africa's western tip to Tanzania, but today survive only in

isolated pockets of dwindling forests.

 

Scientists who study primates estimate that perhaps just 100,000 chimpanzees

and far fewer gorillas and bonobos remain in the wild. Two subspecies — the

mountain gorillas of east Africa and the Cross River gorilla of Nigeria and

Cameroon — are particularly endangered, numbering in the low hundreds.

 

Dr. Shirley McGreal, Chairwoman

International Primate Protection League

POB 766, Summerville SC 29484-0766, USA

Ph. 843-871-2280 Fax. 843-871-7988

E-mail: ippl. Website www.ippl.org

 

" We need not think alike to love alike. " Francis David