Cameroon vs. South Africa in the Battle of the Gorillas
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.
video:
www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2005/05/10/international/20050510_GORILLA_FEATURE.html
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Joao Silva for The New York Times At the Pretoria zoo, four gorillas smuggled from Cameroon to Malaysia were first housed in a glass enclosure. Cameroon wants them back. |
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