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Govt delays gorillas' flight
11/12/2006 18:06 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The government has delayed the return of the Taiping Four gorillas to Cameroon because of red-tape - just two days before their flight.
While everyone involved had agreed to their relocation, South Africa was required to officially indicate its consent, the department of science and technology said on Monday.
"In the absence of this, the Malaysian authorities have not yet been in a position to action Cameroon's request to return the animals to that country," it said in a statement.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which is funding the relocation, said it was "desperately disappointed" at the postponement.
"This has come as a complete bolt from the blue," said spokesperson Christina Pretorius.
Smooth transition to new home
IFAW had been working on the relocation with the National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria (Pretoria zoo) and the Pandrillus Foundation, which manages the sanctuary in Cameroon to which the animals will be sent.
They had developed a close co-operation in the last few weeks to ensure the smooth transition of the animals to their new home, she said.
"Keepers from Limbe have worked alongside their (Pretoria zoo) colleagues for the last three weeks, and staff from the Pretoria Zoo were to travel with the gorillas to Cameroon to ensure them safely settled."
While IFAW understood the position the government found itself in, Pretorius pointed out that all logistics had been in place for the relocation on Wednesday.
"Hopefully the delay is not an extended one," she said.
Gorillas illegally imported
The western lowland gorillas were sent to the Pretoria zoo in 2004 at the request of Malaysia, which confiscated them in 2002 after discovering they had been illegally imported to its Taiping zoo from Nigeria.
Cameroon asked that the animals - three females and a male known as Izan, Abbey, Tinu and Oyin, and aged between five and eight - be returned to their country of origin.
Malaysia informed South African officials of its decision to transfer the gorillas in July.
They were to have flown from OR Tambo International Airport on a scheduled Kenya Airways flight on Wednesday, said Pretorius.
They would have flown via Nairobi to Douala, in Cameroon, and been taken from there, by road, to the Limbe Wildlife Centre - a specialist primate rehabilitation sanctuary.
A move before February will fall outside Cameroon's rainy season and will bring to an end years of dispute over the gorillas' return - lobbied for by, among others, the Born Free Foundation, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, the International Primates Protection League, and the Last Great Ape Organisation.
Other groups have argued that the animals will be safer in South Africa, where they will be protected from poachers who might hunt them for meat.
The Pretoria zoo accommodated them in specially-constructed habitats.
- SAPA
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