New York Times page 1 article on Taiping Four gorillas

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ttp://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, Web:

www.ippl.org

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making

exciting discoveries. ~ AA Milne