Taiping Four Gorillas Secretly Flown to South Africa

May 2004

As readers of IPPL News know, four baby gorillas ("The Taiping Four") reached Taiping Zoo, Malaysia, in January 2002. They had been smuggled to Malaysia from Nigeria, via Johannesburg, South Africa. They were carried on South African Airways. A South African import-export permit had been issued for the transit of these animals.

It is therefore very disappointing news that Malaysian authorities have sent these gorillas to South Africa’s national zoo in Pretoria. The gorillas left Malaysia on 14 April 2004 despite repeated requests from the Government of Cameroon supported by the Government of Nigeria, for them to be returned to what was certainly their country of origin, Cameroon.

IPPL exposes gorilla deal

In a press release issued around 19 April 2004, Willie Labuschagne, director of Pretoria Zoo, announced that the gorillas had been confiscated on arrival at Kuala Lumpur Airport. He claimed,

The four gorillas were illegally transported from Nigeria to Malaysia almost two years ago. They were confiscated on arrival at Kuala Lumpur.

This was untrue. The gorillas had already been at Taiping over two months when IPPL learned from a confidential source that the zoo had recently acquired black market gorillas. The situation would never have come to the world’s attention except for IPPL’s work.

IPPL takes action

IPPL immediately complained to the Malaysian Wildlife Department. The Department cancelled permits issued to Taiping Zoo to import two more infant gorillas. Officials stated that they had believed Taiping Zoo’s claim that the gorillas were captive-born. Although IPPL was pleased that the import permit for more gorillas was cancelled, we wanted to learn how it could be that, despite gorillas being protected (at least on paper) by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), they could still be shipped internationally. Even baby gorillas are large animals that would be hard to conceal from customs inspectors.

An IPPL investigator went to Taiping Zoo and confirmed the presence of four gorillas. A zoo employee stated that that they had reached Malaysia from Nigeria. Zoo director Kevin Lazarus refused to provide any information.

IPPL obtains documents

IPPL next contacted a member in Nigeria who confirmed that Ibadan Zoo had exported the gorillas, falsely claiming that they were born at the zoo. He and an Associated Press reporter visited the zoo and verified that it had only one gorilla, an elderly female. Zookeepers stated that the exported baby gorillas had all reached Nigeria from neighboring Cameroon --- and that many other babies had been obtained by the zoo and died before being shipped anywhere.

In addition our colleague obtained papers pertaining to the shipment, three of special significance: 1) a South African Airways waybill for four gorillas to be shipped from Lagos, Nigeria, to Penang, Malaysia, via Johannesburg, South Africa --- even though South African Airways normally has a policy of not shipping primates; 2) a South African veterinary import/ re-export permit for FIVE lowland gorillas to be shipped from Nigeria via Johannesburg to Malaysia. Apparently this did not raise any "red flags" in South Africa despite widespread knowledge of the endangered status of gorillas; it also appears that one of the five gorillas died before shipment; and 3) a

Nigerian CITES export permit issued to Ibadan Zoo for export of five "captive-bred" gorillas. As noted, one gorilla was not shipped.

Cameroon and Nigeria request gorillas go to Cameroon

On 11 November 2002, during a Conference of the Parties to CITES, Dr. Imeh Okopido, Nigeria’s then Minister of State for the Environment, and Mr. Denis Koulagna Koutou, Cameroon’s Director of Wildlife, presented the Malaysian delegation with a co-signed letter requesting the return of the gorillas to Cameroon. The letter went unanswered. On 27 August 2003, after learning of Malaysia’s plans to send the "Taiping Four" gorillas to Pretoria, Cameroon’s Minister of the Environment, Dr. Tanyi Myianbor, sent an official letter to his counterpart in Malaysia requesting that the gorillas be returned to Cameroon,

I would like to emphasize the hope of the Nigerian and Cameroonian authorities to see these animals sent back to their native land instead of being exported to a zoo in South Africa as recently reported by Dr. Shirley McGreal of the International Primate Protection League... Let me inform you that two other gorillas smuggled probably by the same network were seized and repatriated to the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon..on May 23rd of this year. This information needs to be given in order to prevent Your Excellency from being convinced that the Pretoria Zoo is the only [facility] equipped for the rehabilitation of these animals, the argument that seemingly oriented the decision of sending the smuggled gorillas to South Africa. I would be grateful for any measure you will take for repatriation of the young gorillas to their native land instead of the Pretoria Zoo.

Minister Mbianyor sent copies of his letter to Dr. Okopido of Nigeria and the Secretary-General of CITES. The Minister also met privately with then Malaysian Minister Law Dieng Hing during the Convention on Biological Diversity conference held in Malaysia in February 2004, but he asked that this meeting not be publicized because he, naively as it turned out, believed that Malaysia would return the gorillas to Cameroon.

Pretoria Zoo chosen

Minister Law instead announced that Malaysia had agreed to send the gorillas to "the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Pretoria under a bilateral technical co-operation agreement." Law said that the decision had been approved by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the CITES Secretariat in Switzerland. Pretoria Zoo then owned one elderly male gorilla. According to the International Gorilla Studbook, three other gorillas owned by Pretoria died in their 20s, the last one in 1998. Two infants born at the zoo in 1989 and 1990 survived less than a month.

In contrast, Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon maintains a group of 12 rescued gorillas. Many of Limbe’s animals reached the center in appalling physical and emotional condition yet survived.

Gorillas moved secretly

There has recently been a change of government in Malaysia. Datuk Adenan Satem has replaced Minister Law Hieng Ding. The name of the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry has been changed to the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry. Unfortunately the decision to send the animals to South Africa was not changed.

On 16 April IPPL learned from the Malaysian press (see part of relevant article below) that the four gorillas had been secretly shipped to Pretoria Zoo, accompanied by a group of Malaysians. Animal groups worldwide are shocked that the wishes of the Environment Minister of the country where the gorillas’ mothers were undoubtedly shot were flouted. Ian Redmond of the Ape Alliance commented,

We should recall that these four infants represent, at a conservative estimate, 56 dead gorillas! (N.B. at least four out of five infant gorillas die in trade, so four live babies equals 20 captured, and each infant is captured by killing at least two adults - the mother and father - so four live babies equals 40 dead adults and 16 infants that died before reaching adequate care). Pretoria will doubtless stress the conservation education value of their new gorilla exhibit, but surely the place where this conservation education value of captive gorillas is most needed is in Cameroon.

Unfortunately, protests from IPPL and its members, from the Cameroon-based Last Great Ape Organization, and 65 other wildlife protection organizations had no effect and the gorillas are now in South Africa.

GORILLA MOVE KEPT SECRET FROM PRESS AND PUBLIC

The Star, one of Malaysia’s leading newspapers, learned quickly that the gorillas had left Malaysia. In a story with the headline "Gorillas sent to South Africa" published on Friday April 16, 2004, reporter Raslan Baharom wrote;

The four young gorillas illegally sourced from Nigeria have been sent from the Taiping Zoo to Pretoria, South Africa, in a hush-hush move aimed at dodging the media. It is learnt that the animals, accompanied by Taiping Municipal Council president, Datuk Jamalludin Al Amini Ahmad, their keeper, K. Mani, and a veterinarian, departed on Tuesday. Council officials declined comment but a source said Jamalludin would disclose the matter to the media upon his return. The source said the media had been kept in the dark over the animals' departure on the instruction of a higher authority. A check at Mani's home here yesterday confirmed he was away overseas. A family member who declined to be named said Mani was recently issued with a passport and had flown abroad on a very secret assignment. "Ini rahsia besar kerajaan. Tak boleh kasi tahu. Nanti kami susah (This is a big government secret. We cannot tell. Otherwise we will be in big trouble)," she said.

WHAT YOU CAN DO It is outrageous that nobody in Malaysia, in or out of government, has been prosecuted in connection with the "Taiping Four" affair. Dr. Kevin Lazarus, director of Taiping Zoo, has not made public the documents that show who played what role in the affair, nor has anyone expressed remorse over the gorilla mothers killed to supply the zoo with its babies. Please send a letter requesting that there be a thorough investigation of the Taiping Four gorilla smuggling case with anyone found to have acted improperly prosecuted or removed from his or her jobs. Contact the Malaysian Ambassador to your country (or High Commissioner if you live in a Commonwealth nation): The US address is: The Ambassador of Malaysia Embassy of Malaysia 2401 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008 Please send a letter to Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Director-General of the United Nations Environment Program which administers the CITES Treaty. Express your concern over the insulting treatment administered to the Honorable Tanyi Myianbor, Minister of the Environment of the Government of Cameroon, whose request for the return to Cameroon of four gorillas smuggled from his nation to Malaysia, where they would live at a qualified and respected wildlife center, was rejected in favor of sending the gorillas to a zoo in South Africa, a nation which had allowed the animal smugglers to ship the animals through Johannesburg Airport on their way to Malaysia. Request that an objective panel be established to investigate the mishandling of this smuggling incident. Dr. Klaus Toepfer, Director-General United Nations Environment Programme United Nations Avenue Gigiri, PO Box 30552 Nairobi, Kenya