South Africa's Role in Gorilla Conservation?

[Guest guest]

Please refer to the final paragraph of this news report (below), where

Pretoria's National Zoo director urges the world's outcry against him and his

zoo to stop, reflecting a convoluted logic that would have some believe that he

or his zoo has ever done anything to help gorilla conservation. They haven't.

 

Don't Forget: South Africa was one of 4 countries involved in this crime,

including participation of its national carrier, South African Airways, who

transported these stolen gorillas, despite their own ban against this.

 

I've asked but never received any answer to illustrate if or how National Zoo

has ever made any contribution to the welfare of gorillas in captivity or in the

wild. But when they heard the gorillas were going to be taken away from Taiping,

they quickly sent staff to Malaysia to secretly negotiate a deal to get the

gorillas to their own zoo (allegedly promising Taiping future offspring), then

brought them back to Pretoria in a top secret maneuver worthy of a spy movie!

 

This statement also reveals a great deal of ignorance. Gorillas are in

sufficient numbers in captivity to NOT need additional genes to ensure the

success of their species in captivity, although more genes would be nice ... but

at what cost??

 

Mr. Labushagne wants to sell the world on the notion that only they can help

gorillas. He dismisses the Cameroonians, and private emails I've had with

members of the South African government reflect the same arrogance, that the

poor Cameroonians can't stop people from stealing their gorillas and therefore

they're not entitled or capable of having them returned!

 

Getting additional genes into the captive gorilla population isn't a bad thing,

but HOW they got those genes there is the heart of this issue. By letting the

gorillas stay in South Africa, more zoos like Taiping are going to see that, if

you have the backing of a rich government, you can break all sorts of

international laws, slaughter countless endangered species and then spin it into

the story that you're helping conservation ala Labushagne-Logic.

 

IF Pretoria is serious about helping gorillas, they'd do the right thing. They'd

respect the government of Cameroon's repeated requests for the return of their

stolen heritage and they'd send the money they've invested in their own zoo, to

help sanctuaries like Limbe continue their important work in being real,

effective and critical saviors of this and other species.

 

Jane Dewar

Founder, Gorilla Haven www.gorilla-haven.org

President, Dewar Wildlife Trust, Inc.

Publisher, Gorilla Gazette

 

 

 

 

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.

 

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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/international/africa/10gorilla.html?pagewant

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