Four gorillas are leaving Pretoria and heading home to Cameroon in time for Christmas.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said the gorillas, known as the Taiping Four, would probably leave for the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Douala, Cameroon, on December 7.
”Ifaw is absolutely delighted by this turn of events, which signals a happy outcome to the saga of Izan, Abbey, Tinu and Oyin, the four young gorillas — three females and a male — who have captured the imaginations of animal lovers worldwide for nearly three years,” said Ifaw spokesperson Christina Pretorius.
Ifaw is working with the National Zoological Gardens (NZG) of South Africa — the Pretoria Zoo — and the Pandrillus Foundation, which manages Limbe.
The gorillas, estimated to be between five and eight years old, have been in South Africa since April 2004.
They were sent to the Pretoria Zoo for safekeeping by the Malaysian government, which confiscated them from the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia after it emerged that the zoo had bought them illegally in January 2002.
The gorillas are believed to have been originally captured by animal smugglers in Cameroon. They had travelled from Nigeria through Johannesburg en route to the Malaysian zoo.
”Independent DNA sampling commissioned by the NZG of South Africa confirmed that the Cameroon was the most likely place of origin of these gorillas,” said Ifaw and NZG in a joint statement.
”The government of the Cameroon began a series of formal requests for the gorillas’ return in 2002 and Malaysia informed the South African officials of the decision to transfer the gorillas in July 2006.”
The NZG executive director, Willie Labuschagne, said although the zoo was sad to see the gorillas leave, it would do everything within its power to facilitate their safe transfer to the Cameroon.
”The wellbeing of the four gorillas is of paramount importance to us,” he said.
Pretorius described Limbe as a ”high quality” centre and said it was ”entirely likely” that the gorillas would eventually be able to return to the wild.
Ifaw is funding the return and Pretorius said they would be fundraising for this.
Various groups lobbied for the return of the gorillas to Cameroon, including the Born Free Foundation, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, the International Primates Protection League and the Last Great Ape Organisation. — Sapa