Fw: primfocus: Portland groups are at center of gorilla dispute

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> Portland groups are at center of gorilla dispute

> 11/11/02

> MICHELLE COLE

> Four baby gorillas captured illegally in the wilds of West Africa are at

the

> center of an international controversy involving zoologists, government

> ministers and two Portland-based rescue organizations.

>

>

> The three females and one male, ranging from 2 to 4 years old, remain in

> limbo at the Taiping Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while a debate about

> their future is settled.

> The Malaysian government has said it would send the animals back to Africa

> if a suitable place can be found -- this following several months of

> pressure from conservationists and the World Association of Zoos and

> Aquariums. Among the top candidates as a suitable place, in Cameroon, is

one

> run by two former Portland residents.

> The animals are in good health and are not on exhibit, a Taiping Zoo

> official said last week.

> But conservationists say they're concerned that the gorillas are

traumatized

> and vulnerable to disease. Developmentally, the young apes are not unlike

> human toddlers.

> There is support within the primate research and rescue community for

> sending the animals to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon. Limbe is

> financed by the Portland-based Pandrillus Foundation and supported by the

> Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance, another Portland-based organization.

> The Limbe Wildlife Centre began as a colonial zoo. Today it is a primate

> sanctuary and education center run by Peter Jenkins and Elizabeth Gadsby,

> former Portlanders who went to Africa for an adventure 15 years ago and

> stayed.

> Pandrillus and the Pan African Sanctuaries Alliance have raised $30,000 to

> help pay the estimated $200,000 cost of keeping the four animals at Limbe

> over their lifetimes. Gorillas can live to be 40 years old.

> Jenkins said it makes ethical and practical sense to send the gorillas to

> Limbe.

> " I'm almost certain that the gorillas came originally from Cameroon, and I

> think it would be a bad precedent to set for animals not to go back to

their

> country of origin, " he said. " It's the best thing for the gorillas, I

> believe, because it's the best place for them. "

> Gorillas are found in mountain and low-lying forests in nine African

> countries. At one time, their population was estimated at more than

100,000.

> But surveys indicate the numbers are declining as gorillas are hunted and

> forests are transformed into agricultural fields or cities.

> Hunting or capturing the animals is illegal in Uganda, Rwanda, Congo,

> Cameroon, Nigeria and Gabon. A global treaty that governs ivory trade and

> other activities, called the Convention on Trade of Endangered Species of

> Wild Fauna and Flora, also bans the hunting or trapping of apes.

> But neither hunting laws nor the global treaty has stopped poachers from

> selling gorillas as bushmeat or for other purposes on the black market.

> Activists and primate experts think the gorillas, which arrived at the

> Taiping Zoo in January, were captured in a Cameroon rain forest. Their

> mothers probably were killed, said Gadsby, of the Limbe Wildlife Centre.

> Like humans, gorilla mothers and their youngsters bond deeply, she said.

> " It's likely that the babies were pulled screaming off their mother's dead

> body. "

> The Taiping Zoo official said his zoo thought the animals were born in the

> Ibadan Zoo in Nigeria and were part of a legitimate animal exchange

between

> two zoos. Further investigation by activists found that the documents

> accompanying the gorillas had been falsified.

> " The (Ibadan) Zoo has only one old female gorilla and a male who died

years

> ago and is exhibited stuffed, " said Shirley McGreal, chairwoman of the

> International Primate Protection League, based in Summerville, S.C.

> The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums has identified the National

Zoo

> of South Africa as the most suitable new location for the four young

> gorillas, said Peter Dollinger, the association's executive director.

> But animal welfare advocates, including well-known primate expert Jane

> Goodall and the International Primate Protection League, are pressing for

> the gorillas to go to the Limbe Wildlife Centre.

> " Limbe already has eight gorillas in its care, all rescued from local or

> commercial trade, " Goodall wrote in a letter last week to the senior

> enforcement officer for the Convention on Trade of Endangered Species.

> " Although most of those gorillas arrived in desperate condition, sick and

> traumatized, the excellent care provided by Limbe's local and

international

> staff restored their health. "

> The decision will be left to the Malaysian government.

> Whether the gorillas go to another zoo or to a wildlife sanctuary, they

will

> live in an enclosed area. If they go to Limbe, Jenkins said, there's a

> chance they could be reintroduced to the wild after they've grown and

> learned to fend for themselves.

> Even then, he said, rescuers would have to search for a place where the

> gorillas would not once again be vulnerable to hunters. Michelle Cole:

> 503-294-5143; michellecole

>

> © 2002 OregonLive.com. .

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