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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.
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.
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.
Stuffed in a Cardboard Tube
Stories of Trafficking
of Great Apes
Drowned in Cairo
The 'Taiping Four'
2000
2002
2001