(MY) Gorillas

[Guest guest]

-

" Shirley McGreal "

 

South African Airways flew the gorillas to Malaysia via South Africa and

South Africa's national zoo will walk away with a million dollars worth of

gorillas! S

 

The Star, Malaysia, Wednesday, July 09, 2003

 

'Zoo knew baby gorillas were illegally sourced'

 

PUTRAJAYA: Preliminary investigations by the Wildlife and National Park

Department revealed the Taiping Zoo knew the four baby gorillas it brought

in last April were illegally sourced and not obtained from a captive bred

centre in Nigeria as claimed.

 

Science, Technology and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Law Hieng Ding said

he suspected the export permit issued by the Nigerian Cites (Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species) management authority too had been

forged.

 

" It had been brought to my attention that the University of Ibadan

Zoological Gardens does not have any breeding programme for gorillas.

 

" We will get to the bottom of this controversy that had tarnished the

country's image as a responsible member of Cites.

 

" I will not leave any stone unturned as it seems some parties had

deliberately misled me into signing the import permit for the animals under

the pretext of animal exchange. This means I could have been cheated, " said

a visibly upset Law yesterday.

 

He said he had asked the Taiping Zoo for a full report.

 

" We want to hear their explanation before we make any final judgment.

 

" We want to know who is the real culprit. It is certainly not us (at the

ministry level). We had acted responsibly, " he said, referring to his order

for a probe after the transaction was exposed by the International Primate

Protection League.

 

He said the letter was sent two weeks ago but the zoo had yet to respond.

 

Gorillas are one of the four endangered great apes listed under Cites, which

prohibits any trade of the species caught from the wild. But the convention

allows strictly regulated trade if the animal is obtained from captive bred

facilities.

 

----

 

BBC NEWS Wednesday, 9 July, 2003, 05:59 GMT 06:59 UK

 

Malaysia aims to end ape row

By Jonathan Kent, BBC Kuala Lumpur correspondent

 

The Malaysian Government has approved plans to transfer four illegally

acquired baby gorillas to a zoo in South Africa.

 

Malaysian Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said he had been tricked into

signing an import permit for the primates, which were bought by a local zoo

after being caught by smugglers in West Africa.

 

The case of the Taiping four, as the baby apes became known, had tarnished

the image of Malaysia, Mr Law said.

 

The gorillas will now be sent to Pretoria Zoo in South Africa, which Mr Law

says is best equipped to care for the animals, who would struggle to survive

if returned to the wild.

 

Mr Law said he had been duped into signing a trade permit for the animals

because it contained a false declaration that the deal was approved by

CITES, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.

 

Taiping Zoo, in the north of Malaysia, said it had acquired the rare western

lowland gorillas in January last year, through a legitimate swap with a

Nigerian zoo. But experts say the baby gorillas were almost certainly caught

in the wild and their parents killed.

 

The minister said he intended to track down the culprits, but it appears

that the investigation has made little progress since the government

conceded last October that the deal was illegal.

 

The case prompted the British authority on primates, Jane Goodall, to write

to Mr Law asking him to intervene and send the baby apes to a wildlife

centre in Cameroon.

 

Western lowland gorillas are found in the area between the Congo River and

southern Nigeria. The young are dependent on their mothers until four or

five years of age. The primary threat to the species is from man, through

hunting and deforestation.