Stolen Apes

Stories of Trafficking of Great Apes

The 'Taiping Four'

In January 2002, one male and three female infant Western Lowland gorillas were shipped from Nigeria via South Africa to the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia. The Taiping Zoo claimed the gorillas were part of an animal exchange programme with Nigeria’s Ibadan Zoo, and that the gorillas were captive-bred, even though the Ibadan Zoo’s only living gorilla was an elderly female and the last male had been stuffed and was on public display. In fact, a wildlife dealer in Nigeria had il- legally imported the gorillas from Cameroon and reportedly received a combined price of USD 1.6 million for them. The gorillas were transported under valid CITES permits. Subsequent reports indicated that the Ibadan zoo keepers knew the gorillas had originated from Cameroon. After 14 months of high-level negotiations that sought the return of the gorillas to Cameroon, Malaysian authorities decided to send them back to Africa – but to South Africa. Only after a delega- tion of senior Cameroon officials visited Pretoria, was an agreement reached to repatriate the gorillas in November 2007.

In late 2000, customs officials at the Doha airport in Qatar noticed a cardboard tube moving suspiciously in the bag- gage area. Upon opening the tube, inspectors found two infant chimpanzees wedged end-to-end inside the package. The chimpanzees were confiscated and ultimately sent to a sanctuary in Zambia. Stuffed in a Cardboard Tube

2000

2001

2002

Drowned in Cairo

On September 17, 2001, officials at Cairo airport intercepted an illegal shipment from Lagos, Nigeria, containing two infant apes: one gorilla and one chimpanzee. The apes were accompanied by their owner, a woman who said they were pets, even though she did not have a permit to transport them. Alarmed by reports of apes carrying deadly infectious diseases, and despite the urgent efforts of animal welfare NGOs, the decision was taken to euthanize both animals by drowning them in a vat of chemicals.

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