Guest guest Posted October 15, 2002 Report Share Posted October 15, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/10/15/features/hrgori & sec=f\ eatures ________________________ Tuesday, October 15, 2002 Gorillas grounded By HILARY CHIEW <b>Gorillas have long been on the wanted list of Taiping Zoo, so when four baby apes from Nigeria arrived at the zoo early this year, they were a much welcomed addition. But a tip-off by a wildlife observer led to a series of investigations that quickly developed into a controversy, embarrassing both countries.</b> IF MATTERS had proceeded as planned, Taiping Zoo & #8217;s latest attraction & #8211; four baby gorillas & #8211; would certainly have been a hit, and put the zoo a few notches above other zoos in the region. However, the display which was scheduled to coincide with the Labour Day holiday on May 1 never took place. After keeping the gorillas in quarantine for 3½ months and RM600,000 spent on an enclosure to showcase them, the primates were hidden away from the public eye, including the media, when conservationists cast doubts on where the apes came from just days before the public exhibition. The zoo had insisted that the gorillas were acquired from a captive breeding programme in the country of origin, Nigeria. Taiping Zoo director Dr Kevin Lazarus had said then that the gorillas were imported as part of an animal exchange programme among the zoo community. He added that the zoo, in return, would be sending tigers, sun bears and other animals to its Nigerian counterpart. However, the US-based International Primate Protection League (IPPL) disputed the existence of any captive gorilla breeding programme in Nigeria. It produced evidence to show that there was no such programme at Ibadan University Zoo which is Taiping Zoo & #8217;s partner in the so-called exchange programme. The issue quickly developed into a controversy that brought embarrassment to both countries which are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Gorillas are listed under Appendix I of CITES which prohibits any trade in the species, except from certified breeding programmes. Acquisition of endangered species from certified facilities is subjected to stringent measures of cross-verification and demands that the exporting and importing countries exercise utmost care in ensuring that the animal is indeed bred in captivity. Even though all the necessary documents to facilitate the transfer of the four gorillas from Nigeria to Malaysia were in order, suspicion was raised over the captive breeding facility stipulated in the export permit. The IPPL had obtained incriminating documents which indicated that the animals were not born in a Nigerian zoo and that money was involved. In fact, the export permit stipulated the number of animals as five. IPPL director Dr Shirley McGreal questioned one particular correspondence between the managing director of a company in Penang and the director of the Nigerian zoo in which the former wrote: “In view of the fact that UI (University Ibadan) cannot pay for the last gorilla which was supplied to the zoo, we have made alternative arrangement to pay the money of the animal directly to the supplier and to be given to the zoo as animal donation from us. This implies that the last gorilla is been donated to the zoological garden, UI, by Nigercomsol. This arrangement is in order to enhance the transaction of the animal exchange programme between Nigercomsol and Taiping Zoo.” “It will be interesting to find out who this dealer is,” notes McGreal, whose organisation has an on-going campaign against the illegal trading of apes in Africa. An international smuggling ring there has been targeting endangered apes such as gorillas and chimpanzees. The managing director of Nigercom Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd, when contacted two weeks ago, said the company had ceased operations in March. “All enquiries should go to the authorities,” says Norizan Abdulrahman. She admitted that the company had “assisted in the exchange programme” but refused to give further details. The saga was unravelled by IPPL following a tip-off by a wildlife trade observer when the gorillas arrived at Taiping Zoo sometime between Jan 18 and Jan 20. IPPL looked into the circumstances surrounding the shipment. A check with the Malaysian CITES management authority, the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), revealed that Taiping Zoo had obtained approval for the import of six gorillas. Following the disclosure by IPPL that there were no captive breeding programmes for gorillas in Nigeria, the department immediately withdrew its import permit and stopped the shipment of the remaining two gorillas. <b>The Taiping Four</b> Dubbed the Taiping Four, the gorillas, which ranged in ages from 14 to 33 months, had been put on a South African Airways flight from Lagos to Johannesburg, South Africa, and on to Bangkok where the shipment was transferred to a joint Thai Airways-Malaysia Airlines flight to Penang in early January. Says McGreal: “It is believed that the original plan to ship the animals via Dubai using Egypt Air was dropped following international protests after the airline drowned a baby gorilla and a baby chimpanzee in a vat of chemicals for fear of diseases when the Egyptian authorities seized the smuggled primates in September last year. “For each baby gorilla shipped, many more mothers and babies die. The purpose of CITES is to stop the kind of dealing that led four gorillas to Taiping. Nigeria has only 200 to 250 gorillas of the sub-species Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) left, all in Cross River State,” explains McGreal. IPPL revealed that if indeed the species belonged to the western lowland type (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) as indicated in veterinary documents, the shipment had directly contributed to the flagrant cross border wildlife trade between Nigeria and Cameroon. “The western lowland gorilla is not found in Nigeria and Cameroon has banned all export of gorillas,” says McGreal. <b>Ticked off</b> Acknowledging the controversy as a case of animal exchange between countries that went awfully wrong, the Government made a decision last week to surrender the animals to a breeding facility to be decided by the Geneva-based CITES secretariat. Science, Technology and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Law Hieng Ding admitted that the authorities were misled by the declaration in the official documents but did not specify who the culprits were. He added that Taiping Zoo would be given a stern warning “for causing embarrassment and tarnishing the image of the country.” The Government is also exploring the possibility of arriving at an agreement with the selected breeding facility to facilitate import of the off-springs of the Taiping Four in future. Should the agreement materialise, Taiping Zoo will develop a training programme for its keepers to acquire expertise in caring for the endangered apes which are highly susceptible to a ground pathogen in the tropics. In the meantime, the Nigerian authorities have confirmed that the gorillas were captured illegally and requested for their return to Nigeria. <b>Western monopoly</b> Taiping Zoo & #8217;s plan to acquire gorillas is no secret. On the website of the South-East Asian Zoos Association of which it is a member, the zoo has included western lowland gorillas on its wanted list. Zoo director Lazarus had earlier commented that there should be a good stable group of gorillas in South-East Asia as there is none at the moment. The saga had unwittingly rekindled a long-standing animosity between Asian and western zoos over the issue of captive breeding programmes for gorillas. Western zoos had bandied about the death of four gorillas, delivered to Singapore in 1983, from the ground pathogen, pseudomonas pseudomallei. The gorillas were presented by the Bristol Zoo of England and Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1993, one of the two young male gorillas sent to Singapore by the Rotterdam Zoo in The Netherlands died of the same illness; the surviving animal was recalled for treatment. “The two incidents have been used by western zoos to deny Asian zoos the opportunity to start their own breeding programmes. Western zoos would only supply the offsprings from their current stocks to their own members in North America and Europe,” says a senior Perhilitan officer who declined to be named. “These zoos in the developed countries had acquired their original stocks from the wild under the pretext of research and are now claiming the moral high ground in preventing others from doing the same. “If they are sincere in wanting to help the world zoo community, they should share their surplus with Asian as well African zoos.” The officer added that Lazarus had tried in vain to acquire gorillas from Australian zoos which are sub-regional members of the powerful World Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (Waza). <b>Breeding programmes</b> However, Waza executive director Peter Dollinger explained the commitment of the association to supply gorillas to participating zoos under its cooperative breeding programmes. “There are currently two regional cooperative breeding programmes, one each in North America and Europe. Each programme involves close to 400 gorillas in 60 zoos. The European programme includes zoos in Australia which form a sub-region,” says Dollinger. “Asian zoos participate in neither programmes. Talks between the Australian and Japanese zoos on future cooperation are envisaged and it could eventually be extended to other countries in the region. “If animals become available, the policy is to give them, as a first priority, to zoos already owning gorillas to complement their groups (of animals).” Dollinger added that many zoos in Europe and North America are upgrading old facilities with the capacity to keep only one pair of animals, to large landscaped enclosures suitable for a family of gorillas. Hence, most of the animals available will go to such zoos. “Zoos within the region which would like to participate in the programme will be requested to send keepers for training. Zoos outside the two regions would be served in the third priority, but high demand from the first two groups diminishes any chance at the moment for the third group. “While the number of gorillas in these programmes is growing steadily, the reproduction rate is not high enough to produce a large number of surplus animals. In Europe, the net increase is about 10 animals per year,” says Dollinger. Whatever the constraints, dabbling in illegally captured animals goes against the principles of conservation. “The appalling treatment of animals in Asian zoos is the main reason why the international conservation community is reluctant to place threatened species here,” says Chris Shepherd, a programme officer of Traffic South-East Asia, a wildlife trade monitoring programme. “Zoos in the region should focus on preserving local species, many of which are heading towards extinction.” As the dust settles on this unsavoury episode, conservationists are calling for the revocation of the export permit from the Nigerian authorities which facilitated the transfer of the four gorillas to Malaysia. Under the same permit, three chimpanzees have been approved for export to Malaysia. Perhaps the authorities should act speedily to prevent unscrupulous quarters from using the permit to bring in another Appendix I species, and subject the country to another round of embarrassment. <p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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