PEGAS welcomes the adoption of Uganda’s proposal for the creation of a Great Apes Enforcement Task Force at the recent CITES CoP20 in Samarkand.
The Great Apes Enforcement Task Force is a crucial, often discussed initiative under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) to combat the severe illegal trafficking of gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans, with a proposal for its re-establishment recently adopted at CITES COP20 in late 2025 to coordinate range, transit, and consumer nations for better enforcement, addressing issues like fake “captive-bred” claims and social media sales. It builds on past efforts, aiming to create collaborative strategies to stop poaching and the illicit trade in live apes and their parts, which often involves the slaughter of entire families for infants, using networks like PASA and GRASP for support.
Why it’s Needed:
Industrial-Scale Trafficking: Great apes are heavily poached for the illegal pet trade, entertainment, and body parts, with high mortality rates for family members (5-10 apes die for one baby).
Exploiting Legal Loopholes: Traffickers use “captive-bred” facilities and social media to launder wild-caught apes, creating a significant enforcement challenge.
CITES Protections Overlooked: Despite all great apes being in CITES Appendix I (highest protection), illegal trade thrives, requiring better implementation and enforcement.
Key Goals of the Task Force:
Collaborative Enforcement: Bring together countries where apes live (range states), transit hubs, and consumer nations to share intelligence and act jointly.
Address All Aspects of Trade: Tackle illegal capture, transit through airports (like Dubai/Abu Dhabi), fake captive breeding, and online sales.
Support Range States: Provide assistance to countries struggling with enforcement and managing confiscated apes.
Recent Developments (late 2025):
CITES COP20 Adoption: Uganda’s proposal to re-establish the Task Force was unanimously adopted in November/December 2025, highlighting the urgency.
Focus on Africa: The task force will specifically focus on African great apes (chimps, gorillas, bonobos) but also includes orangutans.
Organizations Involved:
CITES Secretariat & ICCWC: Coordinating the effort.
GRASP (Great Ape Survival Partnership) & PASA (Pan African Sanctuary Alliance): Providing expertise and on-the-ground support.
Ham was the first chimpanzee to participate in spaceflight.
On January 31, 1961, a chimpanzee named Ham became the first great ape to travel to space. His mission was crucial in proving that living beings could survive and function in microgravity. While his flight lasted only a few minutes, Ham’s journey did not end when he returned to Earth.
While Mr. Scientific’s video documents Ham’s journey from young chimp to national hero, it leaves out a few key details about the groundbreaking event.
This article provides a closer look at Ham’s life before, during, and after spaceflight.
Who Was Ham?
Ham was born in 1957 in French Cameroon. As a young chimp, trappers captured him and later sold him to a zoo in Miami, Florida. The United States Air Force then purchased Ham and sent him to live at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.
While at Holloman, Ham participated in NASA’s Project Mercury, a program designed to test the safety of human spaceflight. Ham and other chimpanzees underwent rigorous training to help them survive spaceflight.
As a part of the training, scientists and researchers worked to teach him how to complete simple tasks, such as pressing levers in response to visual and auditory cues. These exercises would eventually help NASA determine whether astronauts could remain functional while experiencing extreme space conditions.
Originally, the team only identified him as “No. 65” to avoid public backlash if the mission failed. However, after his successful flight, he was renamed “Ham” in honor of the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center, where he trained.
Why Was Ham Sent to Space?
Before launching humans into space, NASA needed to ensure that the human body could endure space travel and that astronauts could perform necessary tasks while weightless. Ham’s mission aimed to provide answers to three key questions.
How Does Space Travel Affect the Body?
At the time, scientists worldwide knew very little about the biological effects of space travel. Experts were uncertain whether the human body could survive prolonged exposure to high G-forces, weightlessness, and intense reentry conditions.
By monitoring Ham’s vital signs before, during, and after his flight, NASA hoped to gather critical data on how a primate’s body responded to these stresses.
Could Astronauts Work in Space?
Survival was only part of the space travel equation. To have a successful flight, astronauts would also need to be able to complete tasks while in space to operate the craft and conduct experiments.
As a way to simulate this experience, Ham’s training involved responding to lights and sounds by pressing levers. If he could perform these tasks correctly while weightless, it would demonstrate that astronauts could function effectively in microgravity.
Was NASA Prepared for Space Flights?
Ham’s mission was a stepping stone to human spaceflight. His journey would provide crucial data on the reliability of spacecraft systems, life-support equipment, and astronaut procedures. Any malfunctions or unexpected challenges he faced would provide valuable insights for future human missions.
Ham’s Historic Spaceflight
On January 31, 1961, Ham was secured in a specially designed capsule atop a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket ignited as the countdown reached zero, sending Ham soaring into space.
During the flight, Ham:
Reached an altitude of 157 miles above Earth
Traveled at speeds up to 5,857 miles per hour
Experienced 6.6 minutes of weightlessness
Successfully completed his assigned tasks, proving that cognitive function remained intact in microgravity
Despite the success of the mission, it was not without complications. A slight loss of cabin pressure occurred during the flight, but Ham’s specialized suit kept him safe.
His return to Earth was also rough as his capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, landing farther from the recovery team than expected. By the time rescuers arrived, Ham was reportedly shaken but otherwise unharmed.
The Impact of Space Travel on Ham
While Ham survived his journey into space, the experience had physical and psychological effects on the chimp.
Physical Effects
Ham endured extreme conditions, including high G-forces during launch and reentry. While his vitals remained stable, post-flight examinations showed that he had been exposed to significant stress during his mission.
While the loss of cabin pressure during flight was a concern, Ham’s specialized suit protected him, highlighting the importance of reliable life-support systems.
Psychological Effects
Reports suggest that Ham exhibited signs of distress after the mission. While he was trained to handle stressful environments, the abrupt transition from a structured training facility to the unpredictability of space travel likely left an impact.
However, after a recovery period, he resumed normal behavior, indicating that the psychological effects were temporary.
What Happened to Ham After the Mission?
After his return, Ham was celebrated as a pioneer in space exploration. However, his post-flight life was far from glamorous.
Life in Captivity
Following his mission, the team at NASA sent Ham to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he lived for 17 years. While he was well cared for, his time in captivity was not without controversy.
Observers noted that he sometimes displayed signs of boredom and frustration, likely due to the stark contrast between his former training environment and life in confinement.
In 1979, he was transferred to the North Carolina Zoo, where he had more space and interaction with other chimpanzees. This change of scenery provided a more natural and social environment, significantly improving his quality of life.
Ham lived at the North Carolina Zoo until his death on January 19, 1983, at the age of 26. While a portion of his remains were studied for research, his bones were laid to rest at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, near the base where he trained.
Ed. note: This article is translated from French from Geo magazine.
While the Democratic Republic of the Congo is in the grip of violent clashes, the capital’s zoo plans to acquire great apes from the country’s public and private sanctuaries, alarming sources interviewed by GEO. However, the establishment itself has just sent 12 chimpanzees to a zoo in India, according to the NGO fighting against wildlife trafficking EAGLE.
Twelve: that’s the number of chimpanzees which the Congolese authorities had planned to transfer from the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center (LPRC), located in the South Kivu province, in the east of the country, to the Kinshasa zoo described by a former volunteer as “dying”.
And it is also the number of chimpanzees coming from the Kinshasa zoo which has just been sent “in the greatest secrecy” to India, confided the EAGLE network, an NGO fighting against poaching and wildlife trafficking, to GEO on Thursday February 13.
If the violent clashes following the invasion of Goma by a militia unofficially supported by Rwanda seem not to have posed an obstacle to this international transfer, the domestic transfer project between Lwiro and the capital – which raised indignation in January, as reported by the local press and by the Point – has not been able to succeed to date either.
However, this center of primates located on the front line in the ongoing conflict (150 kilometers by road from Goma) is not the only one concerned by the risk of seeing its protégés escape it.
“Rehabilitate” Congolese zoos
Consulted by GEO, an official press release from the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) reports a program of “rehabilitation” of the zoological and botanical gardens in Kinshasa and Kisangani (to the northeast), intended to receive new “specimens” whose origin is explicit: sanctuaries, rehabilitation centers and animal parks, “public and private.”
The country currently has three rehabilitation centers and sanctuaries housing chimpanzees and small monkeys (Lwiro, JACK and P-WAC) as well as a sanctuary collecting bonobos (Lola Ya Bonobo) and another housing gorillas (GRACE). However, according to the management of a sanctuary concerned, whose identity we will not mention, the situation is “more than delicate”. “With the political situation, we are taking a back seat”, laments our source.
If the Kinshasa and Kisangani zoos do not seem to have either the required personnel or the financial resources to take care of primates from shelters, the ICCN is also suspected to reserve a completely different fate for the latter. The local press had thus raised the hypothesis of the sale of animals to “foreign firms” (7sur7.cd).
Chimpanzees photographed at Kisangani Zoo, Democratic Republic of CongoEAGLE Network
The trail of an Indian billionaire
According to the NGO EAGLE, the chimpanzees sent to India are “supposed to be routed to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Center (GZRRC)”, known to the public as Vantara. A project financed by Indian multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani, CEO of the giant petrochemicals Reliance Industries, with the ambition to make it the largest zoo in the world.
“Could ICCN’s decision to quickly collect great apes for Congolese zoos be linked to the fact that the GZRRC can easily obtain primates through transfers between zoos?”, the association already wondered in a press release published on February 10, just before being informed of the actual sending of chimpanzees to Asia.
Built on an oil refinery site, Vantara was investigated by the independent media outlet Himal (March 20, 2024), revealing in particular transactions with dubious organizations to fill its enclosures. His lions, for example, come from a South African establishment known for breeding wild animals intended for “canned hunting”, a controversial practice of trophy hunting in a closed environment.
Few images of this place have filtered out… at least until its inspiration, a certain Anant Ambani – youngest son of the richest man in Asia – made the zoo the setting for his “pre-wedding” party in March 2024. Some guests, including celebrities, then posed with a captive elephant and shared their photos on social networks.
Ivanka Trump posing in front of an elephant at Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding party, held at this Indian billionaire’s son’s zoo in March 2024. Although the publication still exists, this photo seems to have been deleted. Screenshot
The hidden side of animal trafficking
To try to understand the threat that could weigh on primates in Congolese sanctuaries, we contacted Cécile Neel, investigator for EAGLE, whose teams work in particular in countries neighboring the DRC. In terms of form, nothing prevents the Indian billionaire from signing a contract with the authorities to legally recover primates from Congolese zoos.
“What we know at this stage is that the (Indian) zoo has already received primates from the DRC, and that it has approval allowing it to carry out exchanges with other zoos”, summarizes Cécile Neel. However, such transactions can also be a way, she explains to GEO, to “launder” the real origin of wild animals.
“We’ve had the case of one before of a bonobo found in Armenia, whose CITES permit (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) indicated Guinea as the country of origin”, she illustrates, “which is obviously impossible, since bonobos only live in the DRC.”
The EAGLE network, whose Togolese branch recently seized around forty monkeys from the DRC and destined for Thailand, notes that victims are often drugged to be hidden in cages among other animals. A treatment that not all survives.
The Indian animal park already has received this year nearly thirty chimpanzees from the United Arab Emirates – “an important crossroads for trafficking in protected species” – as well as a bonobo which could come from Iraq, identified the investigator based on data from the CITES.
A dangerous precedent
On the DRC side, concern is palpable. The repopulation of zoos as envisaged by the Congolese institute would in fact constitute, to Cécile Neel’s knowledge, a first on the African continent. And would therefore create, according to her, a dangerous precedent.
Despite the attention paid to each of their protégés, as well as the time and funds devoted to their well-being in the perspective of a reintroduction in the natural environment, should the managers of the shelters concerned fear seeing the services in charge of the transfer ring their doorbell?
“If some think that given the current political situation, no one will come due to lack of logistical means, it is possible on the contrary that the threat will go unnoticed and that the project will be implemented”, fears one of them.
“Our closest cousins are threatened with extinction by trafficking and corruption, and now our investigations show that Congo’s orphaned great apes who survived their family’s massacre are once again under imminent threat from the same enemy”, said Ofir Drori, director and founder of the EAGLE network, in the recent press release.
Editor’s note: This article is reprinted from Oxpecker’s Environmental Journalism.
Daniel Stiles investigates organised transnational networks smuggling great apes from Africa via Nigeria
February 7, 2025
Five-month-old Zeytin was seized in Istanbul by customs officials. Photo courtesy the Turkish Trade Ministry via Reuters
A syndicate based in northern Nigeria has emerged as part of an organised transnational network that is receiving great apes and other endangered species from traffickers in other African countries and smuggling them overseas.
This emerged from the case of “Zeytin”, one of an increasing number of endangered great apes captured in the wild and trafficked to meet demand, mainly in the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East.
On the morning of December 22 2024, Turkish Airlines flight TK624 touched down in Istanbul from Nigeria carrying a small, wooden crate in its cargo hold. The crate was in transit to Bangkok, Thailand.
The Customs Enforcement Smuggling and Intelligence Directorate at Istanbul Airport had been tracking the crate from Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, because it appeared unusual for the “50 rabbits” declared on the airway bill to be shipped at great cost from Nigeria to Thailand.
Upon opening the crate, customs agents found an infant male Western lowland gorilla, which is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), indicating that commercial international trade is prohibited. The gorilla was seized and is now being looked after at the Polonezkoy Zoo in Istanbul. A public contest resulted in the gorilla being named Zeytin, meaning “olive” in Turkish.
Police and CITES officials in Bangkok raided TK Farm International Trading and questioned owner Siriwat Suphakitkasem. Photo: IHA
Pet shop
The importer has been identified as TK Farm International Trading in Bangkok, owned by Siriwat Suphakitkasem, a registered animal importer and breeder with a large pet shop in the Chatuchak Market, known for wildlife trafficking.
Suphakitkasem sells mainly small, fuzzy animals in his pet shop and exports them to various parts of the world. He also owns TK Farm in Nakhon Pathom, about 65km west of Bangkok.
Oxpeckers examined his Facebook friends list and found several names of animal traders, some linked to great ape trafficking. One lives in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and is part of a family that has been trading birds and primates, both legally and illegally, for many years.
Suphakitkasem told Thai authorities he was assisting an African citizen named David to import rabbits, and had no idea that a gorilla was the actual cargo. He said that “David” had paid TK Trading 150,000 Thai baht (about US$4,464) for the service.
The director of the Thai Wild Fauna and Flora Protection Division and CITES representative, Sadudee Punpugdee, said an investigation being carried out in Thailand revealed the documents that claimed the crate contained 50 rabbits.
“It is unlikely any fault will be attributed to any parties in Thailand. However, be assured that coordination has been initiated between CITES Thailand and CITES representatives in Nigeria and Turkey to dismantle the smuggling ring behind the discovery,” said Punpugdee.
The Thai police are actively searching for the person they believe is the actual buyer of Zeytin. Department of National Parks Chief Attapon Charoenchansa said on December 28 that investigators had made significant progress, including obtaining intelligence suggesting the involvement of a wealthy exotic animal collector from another Asian country.
“We continue to uncover more suspicious activities and leads, though we need solid evidence to prosecute the perpetrators,” Charoenchansa said.
A Facebook page set up by a convicted great ape trafficker in Pakistan. Social media has helped to encourage illegal trade. Image supplied
Commercial parks
Social media and a proliferation of commercial wildlife parks have combined to drive a largely illegal trade to supply exotic animals – particularly charismatic ones – to fill privately owned wildlife business facilities. Young animals that can interact relatively safely with children are in highest demand, and are also used as exotic pets in the homes of the wealthy.
Western lowland gorillas such as Zeytin only occur in the wild in Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and the DRC. They do not live in Nigeria, so Zeytin must have been smuggled into the country.
Investigations are under way and an exporter has been identified by company name, which could be fake. Based on past information, Kano in northern Nigeria is the most likely location of the traffickers. Gorillas and chimpanzees have been smuggled out of Kano at least since the 1990s.
An international NGO is collaborating with the Nigerian Customs Service to crack down on the Nigerian gorilla traffickers and said that they had made significant progress, but did not wish to make a statement that might jeopardise the investigation into Zeytin’s case.
Bili was seized in 2023 from two traffickers transporting the primate from Kano. Photo: Peter Jenkins
Primate sanctuary
On August 30 2023 another baby Western lowland gorilla was seized near Lagos from two traffickers who had transported the primate from Kano. They were arrested and the gorilla, named Bili, is now at the Drill Ranch primate sanctuary in eastern Nigeria.
Oxpeckers spoke to Liza Gadsby and Peter Jenkins, founders of the Pandrillus Foundation, which operates the Drill Ranch sanctuary. “Bili is doing fine and has has gained several pounds since coming to us. She has two young chimpanzees for company and she keeps them in line,” said Gadsby.
The sanctuary has obtained a CITES import permit for Zeytin and has asked the Turkish government to repatriate him to Nigeria. “Our plan is to transfer both Bili and Zeytin together to a gorilla sanctuary in Central Africa after quarantine is completed,” said Gadsby. “There are sanctuaries there that prepare young gorillas for release back into the wild. That is our hope.”
ISTANBUL, Turkey––An approximately eight-month-old baby western lowland gorilla, rescued from a coffin-like wooden crate on December 22, 2024 at the Istanbul Airport in Turkey, may be the “missing link” between two of the other horrific stories in the news that day.
“Children executed and women raped in front of their families as M23 militia unleashes fresh terror on the Democratic Republic of Congo,” headlined Guardianwriter Mark Townsend from Goma, DRC, and Kigali, Rwanda, detailing the latest explosion of violence in western gorilla habitat.
The Thai connection
The other horrific story, from Georgie English, foreign news reporter for the British tabloid The Sun, detailed how “One of the loneliest gorillas in the world is set to spend her 41st Christmas trapped in a tiny concrete cage” on an upper floor of the Pata Pinklao Department Store Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand, opened in 1983 with the then-infant western lowland gorilla Bua Noi as the star attraction.
“Bua Noi” is the Thai iteration of the Swahili word bwana, meaning “boss” or “master,” but Bua Noi has never in her life been “boss” or “master” of anything.
Both the baby gorilla confiscated from traffickers at the Istanbul Airport and Bua Noi were captured from the eastern rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, at probable cost of the massacre of their parents and extended families, who would have fought to try to save them, and may have ended up in the cooking pots of soldiers, loggers, or miners.
Both western lowland babies, more than 40 years apart, may have been traded westward for guns and ammunition, among other commodities in urgent need among the combatants and exploiters of central Africa.
Both were likely flown out of Lagos, Nigeria, after passage by truck through the Central African Republic and Cameroon.
The central African region, bisected by the Congo River, has been wracked by recurring mayhem overtaking both apes and humans since 1885, when King Leopold II of Belgium claimed it as the Congo Free State and ran it until 1908 as his own personal slave plantation without ever actually setting foot there.
Pongo, the first gorilla in Europe.
Master Pongo
Even before Leopold, gorilla exports had begun with Master Pongo, shipped through Angola to Berlin in 1876. Master Pongo, however, died at age three in November 1877, after just a year in captivity. The Bristol Zoo gorilla Alfred arrived at about age two in 1930. Surviving until 1948, Alfred’s popularity touched off 35 years of competition among zoos and private collectors worldwide to obtain gorillas.
The various United Nations member nations eventually adopted and ratified the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, putting gorillas off limits to commercial traffic, but implementing the trade ban took more than a decade.
The race to grab gorillas was actually intensified by the success of gorilla advocate Dian Fossey’s 1983 best-selling book Gorillas In The Mist and the 1988 film dramatization of the book, starring Sigourney Weaver.
Together the book and film made saving gorillas an international cause celebre––and enabled zoos quick to cash in on gorilla notoriety to claim that every gorilla obtained by whatever clandestine illegal method arrived as a “rescue.”
Fossey blamed poachers for the decline of both mountain gorillas and western lowland gorillas throughout their habitat in the mountains of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This was accurate enough in close focus, from Fossey’s perspective at the Karasoke research station in Rwanda, but neither Fossey nor anyone else prominent at the time did much to expose the population pressures in overcrowded Rwanda, the political pressures resulting from the murderous reign of dictator Idi Amin in Uganda, 1971-1979, and the poverty and instability in the DRC that drove the poaching.
As Townsend explained in his December 21, 2024 Guardian exposé, “Eastern DRC holds huge, widely coveted reserves of precious minerals. The battle over billions of dollars worth of minerals, alongside the settling of old scores, has plunged eastern DRC into near continuous conflict,” gaining in ferocity since the 1994 massacre of at least 800,000 members of Tutsi tribe by members by Hutu tribe in Rwanda.
Since then, Townsend summarized, “More than six million people are thought to have died and a similar number forced from a swathe of the DRC, whose government has lost control in the east” to a multitude of militias, of which M23 is currently the strongest.
“Shortly after the massacre,” Townsend wrote, after newly armed Tutsi survivors fought back, “more than a million Hutus fled to DRC, including many responsible for the slaughter.
“Twice, Rwandans invaded their neighbor, ostensibly to hunt down the génocidaires.
“In turn, Hutu militias linked to the carnage started to regroup, plotting a return to Rwanda to seize power. To counter this threat, Rwanda began arming Tutsi militias – forerunners to the M23 – inside the DRC.”
(The General Directorate of Nature Conservation & National Parks photo).
Turkey tracked the flight
Meanwhile, on the morning of December 21, 2024, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabahreported, “Customs enforcement teams from the Ministry of Trade intercepted the attempt to smuggle” the rescued baby gorilla via Istanbul Airport.
“According to a statement from the ministry,” the Daily Sabah said, “the Customs Enforcement Smuggling & Intelligence Directorate at Istanbul Airport tracked a cage-type cargo shipment departing from Nigeria, destined for Bangkok, Thailand, as part of risk analysis efforts aimed at protecting wildlife and natural habitats.
“Upon inspection, the team discovered that the cage,” actually just a wooden box with air holes in the sides, “contained a western gorilla, a species listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, indicating her critically endangered status.
“The baby gorilla has been handed over to the relevant units of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry,” the Daily Sabah finished.
As the baby gorilla cannot be safely repatriated back to her family, probably long since massacred in her war-torn and politically unstable homeland, she will probably be kept at one of the better of around a dozen public zoos in western Turkey.
From Bangkok, Wildlife Friends Foundation of Thailand founder Edwin Wiek posted to Facebook, “Who ordered this animal and who shipped her? We need serious investigations going both ways!”
A reasonable guess might be that the baby gorilla intercepted between flights in Istanbul might have been intended for delivery to the Pata Pinklao Department Store Zoo, as a possible companion and eventual replacement for Bua Noi, who is now in late middle age as gorillas go and in an unknown state of health.
Indeed, the Pata Pinklao Department Store Zoo could reap a bonanza of naively favorable publicity by sending Bua Noi to a sanctuary before her eventual terminal decline, with no loss of patronage if another gorilla occupies her cage.
“Even the environment minister of Thailand, Varawut Silpa-archa, has made clear he wishes to see Bua Noi moved to a sanctuary,” wrote Georgie English.
“We collected donations from Bua Noi’s supporters. But the problem is that the owner refuses to sell Bua Noi,” Varawut Silpa-archa told English.
Bua Noi. Bangkok, Thailand. (Wikimedia photo)
“One of the worst zoos in the world”
“When he does agree to sell her, the price is too high. Bua Noi is considered private property so we cannot do anything to remove her,” Varawut Silpa-archa said.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, International Animal Rescue, and the International Primate Protection League, among others, have campaigned unsuccessful for the Tahi government to close the Pata Pinklao Department Store Zoo and rescue Bua Noi almost since her arrival from the DRC by way of Germany at approximately age one.
“Pata Zoo is not only home to the somber gorilla, but also more than 200 other animal species including tigers, bears, and pythons,” wrote English.
“Many of the animals live in similar conditions to Bua, in what Jason Baker, PETA senior vice president for Asia, calls “one of the worst zoos in the world.”
Zira at the Granby Zoo. (Merritt Clifton photo)
Another baby gorilla died at the Pata Zoo
In August 2017 a grossly erroneous but internationally distributed news story, originating from a careless headline above an otherwise accurate report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, announced that Bua Noi and the other Pata Zoo animals would be freed from what Baker calls “pitifully small, barren enclosures,” on the sixth and seventh floors of the shabby shopping center tower, “denied sunshine, fresh air, and opportunities to exercise or engage in behavior that is meaningful to them.”
Some premature “victory” announcements followed, but nothing actually changed.
Subsequent to Bua Noi’s arrival, a 2009 Asian Animal Protection Network posting from U.S. gorilla rescuer Jane DeWar mentioned that, “Some time ago a baby gorilla was acquired by the Pata Zoo,” as an intended companion for Bua
Bua Noi appears to have been captured and exported from the DRA around the same time as another female baby western lowland gorilla named Zira.
International Primate Protection League founder Shirley McGreal learned in mid-1983 that Zira had been exported from Cameroon to the Granby Zoo in Quebec.
The zoo had obtained a permit for the transaction, as required by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, but McGreal contended that the permit was issued in violation of the intent of CITES, if not in violation of the actual letter of the treaty.
Zira meanwhile contracted avian influenza from the exotic birds with whom she was housed. McGreal asked Quebec newspaper columnist Bernard Epps to expose Zira’s plight.
Epps, who died in July 2007, passed the assignment to then-Sherbrooke Record farm and business reporter Merritt Clifton, now coeditor with his wife Beth Clifton of ANIMALS 24-7.
Epps wrote supporting commentary while Clifton produced a series of exposés that culminated in a complete change of the Granby Zoo management and the transfer of Zira to the Toronto Zoo, where she was restored to health and raised with other young gorillas.
Meanwhile, warned Eric Kaba Tah of the German organization Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe, citing cases from the 2005-2012 time frame, “In recent years, the trafficking of Africa’s apes has evolved into a highly organized criminal activity, demonstrated by the manner in which powerful traffickers use their perfected operational skill to run the illicit trade alongside other illegal activity such as the trade in drugs.
“The connection between drugs and wildlife trafficking, and increasing prices for wildlife products,” Eric Kaba Tah wrote, “are attracting criminal syndicates with vast experience in organized crime, as is typical for drug syndicates.”
Agrees Natasha Tworoski of the Pan-African Sanctuary Association, via the PASA website, “The great ape crisis is rapidly escalating. Eastern gorillas, western chimpanzees, and Bornean orangutans were recently downgraded from endangered to critically endangered, joining Sumatran orangutans and Western gorillas. Other chimpanzee subspecies, as well as bonobos, are currently listed as endangered.
“The United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Great Apes Survival Partnership [GRASP] have created an Apes Seizure Database in order to get a more thorough understanding of how the specific threat of ape smuggling is currently affecting great apes,” Tworoski wrote.
Through GRASP, Tworoski said, “1,800 great apes seized in illegal live traffic since 2005 were uncovered who had previously not been counted in international databases, such as those managed by CITES.
“How could the numbers be so under-reported? The majority of seizures, over 90%, took place within national borders and therefore were not counted by international conservation organizations.
“Now that Eastern gorillas, Western chimpanzees and Bornean orangutans have been downgraded from endangered to critically endangered,” Tworoski predicted, “the next step will be extinction.”
Daniel Stiles & Esmond Bradley Martin Jr. (Facebook photo)
Prices for great apes have quadrupled
Updated Rachel Nuwer for National Geographic on May 9, 2023, “Working with a network of undercover investigators and informants, Daniel Stiles,” a wildlife trafficking investigator who formerly worked with the late Esmond Martin to document the global trade in poached elephant ivory, “found that advertisements for live baby great apes are on the rise on WhatsApp and social media.
“Since 2015,” Nuwer wrote, “Stiles documented 593 ads for great apes posted by 131 individuals in 17 countries. Prices for the animals have quadrupled compared to a decade ago, with chimps now selling for up to $100,000, bonobos for up to $300,000, and gorillas for up to $550,000.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Rising demand from China
“Most of the African apes go to China, Pakistan, Libya, or the Gulf States—especially the United Arab Emirates—where they become pets or, increasingly, attractions at private zoos.
“Some 10,000 zoos opened in China between 2013 and 2020, nearly doubling the total number, Stiles reports.
The 23-member Pan African Sanctuary Association and Stiles were severely critical, to Nuwer, of alleged Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [CITES] indifference toward the escalating great ape trade.
Summarized Nuwer, citing Stiles, “Representatives from Niger, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Uganda did attempt to create a CITES working group dedicated to great apes, in 2014 and 2016. But these requests, Stiles says, were ‘refused’ by the CITES representative chairing the meeting.
Iris Ho, representing the Pan African Sanctuary Association, told Nuwer that “In March 2022,” Nuwer continued, “Gabon, supported by Senegal, Guinea and Nigeria, requested—to no avail—that great apes be put on the agenda for CITES. She says the U.S. also emphasized the importance of paying attention to this issue.”
Cautioned Stiles, “If the international community does not begin to take great ape trafficking seriously, it will continue to grow, threatening the survival of our closest relatives.”
The baby gorilla rescued in Istanbul on December 21, 2024 brought global attention to great ape trafficking.
But only time will tell whether one baby gorilla can turn the great ape trafficking crisis around.
Trafficking of African primates from Africa to Asia was thwarted with confiscated animals repatriated and sent to accredited PASA member sanctuary
December 28, 2023 – A few days before the year 2023 comes to an end and shortly before Christmas, a PASA* member sanctuary in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), J.A.C.K., welcomed the arrival of rescued monkeys seized in Togo. The animals were confiscated from an enforcement operation earlier this month in West Africa when Togo authorities in collaboration with wildlife investigation organization EAGLE Network intercepted 40 monkeys illegally trafficked from DRC and destined for Thailand. It was the largest international seizure of monkeys in Africa. Two monkeys were found dead in their crate by the enforcement officers in Togo. On December 22nd, the surviving monkeys were welcomed to J.A.C.K. Sanctuary in Lubumbashi, DRC.
This is the second large-scale international primate rescue of J.A.C.K in recent years. Two years ago, J.A.C.K. received 23 monkeys that were smuggled from DRC and intercepted in Zimbabwe following a wildlife enforcement operation and joint repatriation effort between the Zimbabwean and DRC governments, local conservation organizations, and PASA. Currently, J.A.C.K. is caring for more than 80 monkeys of various species that have been rescued from the domestic and international illegal trade.
Co-founder and president of J.A.C.K. Franck Chantereau said, “We appreciate the collaboration between the Togo and DRC governments who promptly repatriated the animals within days upon their seizure. It was like a Christmas miracle for these vulnerable monkeys, some as young as four months old, that have found a safe haven at our sanctuary right before the holiday season. The sudden influx of such a large number of animal arrivals is a challenging task for us, but when so many lives are at stake and depend on us, we must do all that we can to bring wildlife criminals to justice and provide high quality care for the rescued animals.”
Chantereau continued, “We are grateful for the support from organizations and individual donors who help us through this difficult time, juggling between building new enclosures and administering urgent medical care for these newly rescued animals. While the enforcement operation has successfully concluded, the hard work has just begun when our sole mission is to nurse the rescued animals back to good health.”
The traffickers produced CITES permits with fraudulent information, falsely stating the species and number of the animals being smuggled. The traffickers crammed the animals in inhumane, stressed, and unsanitary conditions, leading to the deaths of several monkeys during transport while the remaining were injured or in poor condition. The commingling of the dead monkeys with numerous injured ones destined for long transport – from DRC in Central Africa to Togo in West Africa with the final destination in Thailand – raises serious international public health concerns about potential zoonotic disease spillover. Had this smuggling attempt not been stopped in Togo, these injured animals could have been disseminated in Thailand and the dead animals tossed away by traffickers without proper health safety measures.
Most of the rescued monkeys that have arrived at J.A.C.K. are of species threatened with extinction such as Black mangabeys, L’hoest monkeys, Hamlyn’s monkey, and lesulas, which were only recently discovered and can only be found in the DRC. The confiscated monkey species come from different parts of DRC indicating a coordinated and deliberate network to capture a variety of species for international demand. The poaching of these monkeys from the wild represents a threat to biodiversity of the Congo basin and shows a disturbing trend in the ongoing exploitation of vulnerable primate species due to demand for exotic pets or for unscrupulous public display.
Iris Ho, Head of Campaigns and Policy of PASA said, “This largest international seizure of primates in Africa unfortunately is not surprising to us. It is indicative of the enormous challenge facing our three members in the DRC who have rescued more great apes and monkeys this year than ever before. Our members across Africa occupy an invaluable role in wildlife conservation by being a reliable partner of law enforcement and conservation partners when confiscations of live animals occur and providing them a caring home.”
PASA and J.A.C.K. appreciate the ongoing investigation by the Congolese wildlife authority, Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), and will continue to liaise with the ICCN leadership to ensure that the traffickers are brought to justice soonest. We will also continue to collaborate with ICCN to undertake conservation activities to address the root cause of poaching and wildlife trafficking of live animals in the country and to assist the government to effectively comply with international conservation measures such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
*Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) is the largest network of wildlife rescue centers and sanctuaries in Africa with 23 member sanctuaries in 13 African countries. www.pasa.org
PEGAS received quite a surprise a few days ago from seeing a press report that Nobita and Shizuka had just been repatriated to Indonesia. The two infant orangutans were seized in a joint Royal Thai Police-Freeland Foundation sting on 24 December, 2016, almost exactly seven years ago. PEGAS set up the sting.
Supposedly they were being held all this time at the Khao Prathap Chang Wildlife Breeding Centre and Open Zoo in Ratchaburi Province, a little over 100 km from Bangkok.
I say ‘supposedly’, because I visited this facility on 1st February 2020 looking for Nobita and Suzuka. The staff there told me that they had been returned to Indonesia and currently there were no orangutans in residence. I toured the entire facility, which was nothing more than an open-air zoo, including in out-of-the-way back areas, and saw no signs of orangutans. There is photographic evidence that they were there at least until September 2017, a pictorial in the Daily Mailfocused on them.
The Facebook account of the orang keeper at Khao Prathap also shows the last definite photo of the “kids” in September 2017.
Last definite sighting of Nobita and Suzuka with their keeper at Khao Prathap.
If they weren’t at Khao Prathap, where were they? Could they have been farmed out to a commercial facility? Just before visiting Khao Prathap I visited Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, which seems to have a steady supply of young orangutans and chimpanzees for visitors to play with and photograph. According to a tweet by Edwin Wiek, the taxi driver that delivered the kids to the sting claimed that they were owned by a ‘Joe’ at Samutprakarn. Were they returned to him for a stint of cuddling and photo-opping? Now, at seven, getting a bit too old for that, Joe returns them to Khao Prathap for repatriation?
I did see a young, caged orangutan at Samutprakarn in 2020. If it was one of the kids, it looked most like the female Shizuka, the gender of choice for commercial exotic animal facilities because of their docility.
PEGAS is extremely pleased that the kids have been returned home to Sumatra, but at 7 years old I don’t know about their chances of being rehabilitated for release into the forest. With great apes worth thousands of dollars each to traffickers, stopping their trading is turning out to be an extremely difficult challenge.
Editor’s note: This article by Tracy Keeling makes some important points about increasing great ape trafficking and what CITES should be doing about it.
Opportunity knocks for wildlife trade body to step up for great apes. International demand for great apes in the zoo and pet industries is fuelling trafficking, but change could be on the horizon if CITES seizes the moment.
At less than one-year-old, Sana’s future is already partly decided. The tiny female chimpanzee is a trafficking survivor who has irreversible injuries. Due to these impairments, she can’t have babies on her own in the wild, as she will need to deliver by C-section. As studies also show, early trauma can scar chimpanzees throughout their lives. So Sana may grapple with social and emotional issues due to losing her family as an infant.
In other words, Sana has been robbed of a great many things in her short time on Earth. At the sanctuary where she now resides — J.A.C.K Primate Sanctuary (Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga) in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — other young non-human primates have endured similar losses. They also have peers in sanctuaries elsewhere in Africa, with rates of great ape poaching, infant capture, and trafficking attempts, variously growing in several range states since 2020, according to investigative findings published earlier this year.
Chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and bonobos, are all endangered or critically endangered. So the Earth’s dominant great ape — aka humans — needs to respond forcefully to the trafficking problem and other threats going forward.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is holding a Standing Committee meeting between 6 and 10 November. At the event, Liberia is calling on the committee to back new proposals aimed at addressing the trafficking issue, offering some hope that action could be on the horizon.
A disaster
Sana arrived at J.A.C.K, along with Marie, a rescued blue monkey, in early September. They came to the sanctuary just a week before a dismal anniversary. On 9 September 2022, kidnappers snatched three young chimps — César, Monga and Hussein — from J.A.C.K in the middle of the night. The youngsters were never to be seen again.
Ransom videos sent by the kidnappers provided the last haunting images their human caretakers have of the chimps. But Franck Chantereau, who runs the sanctuary with his wife Roxane, is determined not to let their memory fade. He circulated a petition in the lead up the anniversary, urging people to sign it in an attempt “to keep their memory alive.”
“It is just a disaster and it seems that the world is not taking paying enough attention to the problem,“ he says. “I don’t know what is going to be left honestly in the next five to 10 years.”
The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance’s (PASA) head of campaigns and policy, Iris Ho, paints a similar dire picture. PASA is a coalition of sanctuaries, wildlife centres, and other partners, that works to protect Africa’s primates. It has 23 members located in 13 African countries.
Ho says that she was aware of 27 young chimp and bonobo rescues in the DRC alone this year by mid-September, while wildlife trade investigator Daniel Stiles warns that trafficking of infant gorillas picked up in recent months. The situation is certainly at crisis levels in central Africa, according to Ho, with the same being true to some extent in west Africa.
Stiles authored a report titled “Empty Forests: How politics, economics and corruption fuel live great ape trafficking” in April. Produced by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), it pointed to a surge in international demand for live African apes in recent decades.
Moreover, the organisations and entities meant to control illegal trade in great apes “are failing to do so,” according to the report.
Legal trade in apes
CITES has an integral role to play in addressing the issue of trafficking. It is the treaty body that regulates the international trade in many wild species, including great apes.
The body has three different appendices for species, depending on their known risk of extinction. Trade restrictions and permitting requirements for each appendix vary accordingly.
When the necessary criteria is met, non-commercial trade can be permitted for other defined purposes, such as zoos, circuses, and reintroduction to the wild.
CITES Wildlife TradeView records show that countries reported importing 188 live great apes as “direct” trade between 2016 and 2021. Direct trade refers to animals imported straight from their country of origin. Most of the apes were alleged to be bred or born in captivity and the transactions included some individuals listed as traded for commercial purposes.
Legal pathways for illegal trade
The existence of a legal trade in endangered species can provide avenues for illegal trade to happen. This appears to be the case with great apes, according to the GI-TOC report findings.
The report said that captive wildlife facilities involving great apes may operate as both breeding outfits and private zoos, with the latter seeing a massive proliferation in recent years. It further asserted that certain “captive wildlife facilities are increasingly acting as centres for laundering wild-caught animals and illicit trade.”
In comments to National Geographic, Stiles explained, “Registered zoos provide legal cover in the guise of rescue or conservation centers. They also offer laundering facilities for animals smuggled in and sold as captive bred.”
Co-founder of Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue and Protection (LCRP), Jenny Desmond, shares these concerns. LCRP is a rescue centre in Liberia, founded by Desmond and her husband Jimmy, to protect wild and orphaned chimpanzees in the country.
Desmond says, “knowing that sophisticated criminals find creative ways to ensure their supply, the front of ‘sanctuary’ has become a way for traffickers to secure, source, and trade apes without any obstacles.”
Some traders also openly advertise apes on social media platforms, according to the GI-TOC report. It explained, “A video post of a chimpanzee infant dressed in children’s clothing, for example, can quickly reach numerous potential buyers. The trade deals are then negotiated out of public view, in private-messaging apps.”
Abuse of CITES’ captive-bred trade provisions is widespread, according to Monitor Conservation Research Society’s Chris Shepherd. It’s almost always cheaper and easier to capture wild animals than raise individuals in captivity, he says, and there is little meaningful scrutiny of captive breeding claims on the import and export sides of the trading chain.
This means that too often “the parent stock was harvested illegally or the animal that is being imported as captive bred has never been in a captive breeding facility and was directly taken from the wild,” Shepherd argues.
Rooting out illegitimate activity within breeding operations is essential because captivity-based sources make up a significant part of CITES-regulated trade in wild species.
Exporting countries reported more than 120 million direct animal trades by number — referred to as “specimens” — between 2016 and 2021. Over 68% of these specimens, excluding ranched animal trades, were allegedly born or bred in captivity, according to the body’s records. These figures include trade in various specimens, such as blood and tissue, skins, eggs, and other body parts or products derived from animals.
For direct trade in solely live individuals reported by number, captive births and breeding accounted for around 55% of the over 36 million animal trades that exporters reported during the period.
Countries also report trade in animals using other measures, such as kilograms, litres, and metres, so the above figures do not represent the entirety of trade in animals during the period.
Commercial zoos
Zoos were the destination for most traded live great apes in the CITES records. This industry enjoys its own purpose of trade category, separate to the commercial classification.
That zoos can be commercial entities is in no doubt. Indeed, the CITES Secretariat communicated by email that while some CITES parties use the Z code for all zoo imports, others use the T code in some instances. The Secretariat oversees the working of the Convention.
The EMS brief also highlighted examples whereby exporters variously utilised the Z code and the T code in sales of species to the same captive breeding facility, a disconnect that should raise alarm bells.
EMS suggested that determinations on whether captive wildlife facilities fall into the zoo or commercial category should partly depend on their financial activities and what they subject the animals to, such as using them in performances.
At a Standing Committee meeting in November, which is made up of country delegates representing various regions, CITES will take stock of its efforts to protect great apes.
It will review a report on great ape conservation and trade prepared by the Secretariat. The report contains recommendations that encourage parties to improve enforcement measures, collaboration, information gathering, and conservation.
Meanwhile, Liberia has submitted proposals to curb illegal trade in African apes for the committee to consider. It is asking the committee to recommend them for adoption at CITES’ next conference of the parties — CoP20 — which will take place in 2025. The committee decides matters by consensus or vote.
LCRP’s Desmond says Liberia has the world’s second largest population of western chimpanzees, along with the largest intact habitat for the species. She highlights that though national laws exist to protect them, “chimpanzees are under siege in Liberia with a loss of [an] estimated 10% of our population in the past 10 years solely through the rampant bushmeat and pet trades.”
Desmond adds, “Chimpanzee trafficking is local, regional and global. It is an immense and urgent situation. Regional and international collaboration, coordination, oversight, and shared intelligence are the only way we can combat this devastating crisis.”
Liberia’s proposals include calling for the creation of an African Great Apes Task Force. CITES has targeted task forces for other groups of species, such as big cats, and established one for apes in the past.
Having a dedicated task force for African apes would enable CITES to review and improve upon its existing commitments.
For instance, one of the CITES parties’ existing commitments is strengthening “anti-smuggling measures at international borders”. Despite this, the GI-TOC report asserted that apes are often trafficked across borders – mainly by air – with China, the UAE, and increasingly Libya, among the key ultimate destinations. The apes may be concealed in shipments of other species, using mislabelled documents, it said.
J.A.C.K’s Chantereau suggests the failure of countries to stop trafficked animals getting through borders could be addressed by involving experts in the identification process at customs. He also says that a wider rollout of electronic permits in CITES, which still largely uses a paper-based permitting system, would greatly help to reduce the use of fraudulent paperwork.
A task force could dedicate attention to these sorts of issues, along with the suspected abuse of CITES’ other relevant processes, and more.
PASA’s Ho cautiously hopes the discussions at the meeting will lead to some progress after great apes were largely left off the agenda at CITES’ last conference of the parties – CoP19 — in 2022. This omission, along with the Standing Committee failing to back prior suggestions aimed at ensuring apes receive focused attention, has left them somewhat “out of sight, out of mind,” Ho says.
Holistic action
Liberia’s submission also outlines other commitments that the Standing Committee could recommend for adoption at the next CITES CoP.
These include building databases of known captive and wild apes, using artificial intelligence technology and DNA, for better detection of the origin of trafficked individuals. Databases exist to detect wildlife crime in other instances, such as the DNA database built to tackle rhino poaching.
In addition, Liberia proposes the development of strategies to ensure that ape sanctuaries meet high operational standards.
Naturally, meaningful oversight of captive care facilities would be necessary to enforce high standards, which Desmond suggests could help to thwart the laundering of great apes by illegitimate operators.
More broadly, she says high standards are critical for the welfare of individuals and to ensure that genuine sanctuaries meet the “larger responsibility” they have, namely safeguarding endangered species.
Rescue centres do this by helping individuals in their care to “recover, thrive, learn natural behaviors, live with others of their kind, retain their languages, cultures, and genetic diversity, and so much more.” In turn, what rescued apes teach their caretakers informs global conservation efforts and “feasible future reintroduction of great apes” to the wild will rely on these populations.
“Standards of welfare and care become even more important when we consider both the individual and the species,” says Desmond.
Illicit trade in great apes is linked to deforestation and habitat loss, along with people’s livelihoods, Ho highlights, so collaboration across MEAs is important. Deforestation makes it easier for traffickers to access great apes in their forest homes, while habitat loss can push wild apes closer to human communities. Add in insufficient livelihoods and high consumer demand and it’s a perfect storm for trafficking.
Relatedly, another of Liberia’s suggestions calls for establishing projects with relevant communities focused on sustainable livelihoods and habitat restoration.
In a further recommendation, Liberia calls for supporting range states in preventing and mitigating zoonotic diseases, via their One Health Program. As the COVID-19 pandemic made clear, the wildlife trade poses a considerable risk of diseases being transmitted from other animals to humans and vice-versa. This is a threat to people and wildlife, which the holistic ‘one health’ approach seeks to address.
Villains and heroes
The GI-TOC report spotlights corruption as another major mountain to climb in tackling great ape trafficking. Corruption is an issue as old as (human) time and not one that is easily surmountable. But for as long as the world has had villains, it’s also had heroes. Thankfully, there is no shortage of the latter in the great ape trafficking situation either.
From communities and rangers that ensure apes are safe in their homes, through to rescuers and legitimate sanctuaries that liberate and nurture survivors, many champions exist. As Chantereau puts it, “you have heroes in Africa who are risking their lives trying to protect the last great apes.”
The surviving infant apes are also heroic, as are their families who perished trying to protect them.
Mpo’s story illustrates this well. When the young chimp was seized from traffickers, he was still clutching hair of a family member, presumably his mother. He ultimately let the hair go to take food from his rescuer, which Chantereau characterised as Mpo ‘choosing to survive.’
Summing up the courage to go on in the face of these young apes’ trauma is no small feat. Chantereau says when the sanctuary receives an orphan like Mpo, “you can look at him and, in his eyes, you can see he has lost everything. You can see he is empty.”
But very, very slowly, these young apes can gain in confidence and begin to trust their human caretakers. After all they’ve suffered at the hands of humans, through both exploitation and inaction, Chantereau says “they still have the grace to forgive us.”
Editor’s note: This article by Rachel Nuwer is based on the Global Initiative’s ‘Empty Forests’ report on illegal great ape trade. PEGAS has added a photo and links.
With baby gorillas fetching up to $550,000, the illicit trade is booming as demand for African great apes rises in China, the Middle East, and Pakistan.
BY RACHEL NUWERPUBLISHED MAY 9, 2023
Chimpu, a chimpanzee rescued from a smuggling operation in 2017, receives care at Central Zoo, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Two years later in a high-profile case, a Nepali court convicted five men of trafficking baby chimpanzees. [see https://freetheapes.org/tag/seized-chimpanzee/ PHOTOGRAPH BY SAMANTHA REINDERS, THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
Great apes in Africa face the severe threats of habitat destruction and poaching for bushmeat. Now, they’re also increasingly targeted to supply international demand for pets and zoo attractions, according to a new report published by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. So far this problem has largely escaped the notice of most groups tasked with protecting Africa’s great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, and two species of gorillas.
All four species are endangered—most critically—and are protected by national and international laws. But few groups or governments track ape seizures, making it difficult to know how serious a threat poaching for the live animal trade poses. Circumstantial evidence suggests the problem is significant and growing, says Daniel Stiles, an independent wildlife trade investigator in Kenya who authored the report.
“International policymakers, conservation organizations, and donor governments have not grasped the staggering extent of the illegal trade in African great apes,” says Iris Ho, head of campaigns and policy at the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), a nonprofit coalition of 23 primate sanctuaries in 13 African countries, who was interviewed for the report.
Working with a network of undercover investigators and informants, Stiles found that advertisements for live baby great apes are on the rise on WhatsApp and social media. Since 2015, he documented 593 ads for great apes posted by 131 individuals in 17 countries. Prices for the animals have quadrupled compared to a decade ago, with chimps now selling for up to $100,000, bonobos for up to $300,000, and gorillas for up to $550,000. The new report doesn’t cover orangutans, which live in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Most of the African apes go to China, Pakistan, Libya, or the Gulf States—especially the United Arab Emirates—where they become pets or, increasingly, attractions at private zoos. Some 10,000 zoos opened in China between 2013 and 2020, nearly doubling the total number, Stiles reports. It’s easier for locally registered zoos to obtain import permits for strictly protected species than it is for individual citizens, which helps explain zoos’ proliferation. “Registered zoos provide legal cover in the guise of rescue or conservation centers,” Stiles says. “They also offer laundering facilities for animals smuggled in and sold as captive bred.”
In most countries, once a wildlife facility is registered with local authorities, he adds, “you can call them zoos, rescue or conservation centers, sanctuaries—whatever you want.”
Private wildlife facilities offer laundering facilities for animals smuggled in and sold as captive bred. [Photo added by PEGAS]
Another sign of increasing demand is the escalating number of young apes taken in by PASA-accredited wildlife sanctuaries in Africa since 2019, Ho says. PASA sanctuaries look after more than 1,100 chimpanzees, the majority confiscated from traders. Rescued young apes require permanent care, but most PASA sanctuaries are already operating at capacity, and all are underfunded.
Stiles found that traders mainly source baby apes from the Democratic Republic of Congo and West African countries, especially Guinea. For every kidnapped baby chimp, poachers usually kill six to seven adults. Experts also estimate that five to 10 babies die from injuries, illness, or mistreatment for every animal that makes it to buyers abroad.
Traders smuggle some great apes out of Africa in legal shipments of monkeys or birds, the report notes. Increasingly, though, animals are brought to registered zoos, including in South Africa. Evidence suggests that these facilities obtain legal export permits for wild-caught great apes by falsely claiming the animals were bred in captivity.
‘I was tired of battling the bureaucracy’
Little is being done to stop this new trend in illegal trade, Stiles writes, in part because three of the most important international groups tasked with protecting great apes have yet to pay serious attention to the problem.
The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP)—a United Nations alliance—includes combating illegal trade among its priorities. But according to Doug Cress, GRASP’s former leader, the group “barely functions anymore.” Cress resigned in 2016 because the UN agencies that were supposed to be supporting the effort never treated it as a priority, he says. “I was tired of battling the bureaucracy.”
Johannes Refisch, who took over GRASP’s leadership, says that “halting illegal trade is a priority.” Refisch pointed to an ape seizure database that GRASP launched in 2016 as the group’s “main instrument to better understand the drivers of illegal trade so that we can help address it effectively.”
Stiles says that when he requested access to GRASP’s database, in August 2022, he received “a ridiculous report” containing a table of seizure numbers that had no details attached about locations or dates, and no citations. “It had no data,” he says. “Totally useless.”
Refisch declined National Geographic’s request to view the database.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on endangered species, is home to an expert group dedicated to great apes, but it doesn’t prioritize illegal trade, according to Stiles. This stands in contrast to IUCN specialist groups for different species, which actively report on illegal trade. “Look at pangolins,” Stiles says. “No one even knew what the heck a pangolin was until the IUCN specialist group started reporting and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got tens of thousands of pangolins being trafficked’—and now it’s a big deal.”
“The IUCN,” says Dirck Byler, of the organization’s Primate Specialist Group, “considers all threats to great ape populations as serious, and many of its members have dedicated their professional careers to reducing or reversing the threats to great apes, including efforts to reduce the illegal ape trade.”
CITES, the global treaty to ensure that international wildlife trade doesn’t threaten the survival of species, lacks a working group dedicated to great apes, Stiles reports. At last year’s CITES conference, where representatives from 183 countries and the European Union met to make decisions about trade in endangered species, great apes weren’t even included on the agenda. “Because this trade is international, it falls under the purview of CITES,” Stiles says. “But CITES is not taking action.” [see https://freetheapes.org/2017/12/03/cites-again-ignores-great-apes/%5D
Ben Janse Van Rensburg, chief of the enforcement unit at the CITES Secretariat, says that individual countries are responsible for making sure trade in protected species remains legal. In cases where concerns are raised, he says, the Secretariat “has issued a statement to provide factual background.”
CITES member countries are also responsible for setting the agenda for discussion at conferences and meetings, he says, and for establishing working groups for specific species.
Stiles counters in his report that representatives from Niger, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Uganda did attempt to create a CITES working group dedicated to great apes, in 2014 and 2016. But these requests, he says, were “refused” by the CITES representative chairing the meeting.
Iris Ho adds that in March 2022 Gabon, supported by Senegal, Guinea and Nigeria, requested—to no avail—that great apes be put on the agenda for the CITES conference later in the year. She says the U.S. also emphasized the importance of paying attention to this issue.
Without concerted global action, the problem will only worsen, Stiles warns. Already, he’s seeing signs that great ape trade is spreading to India. “If the international community does not begin to take great ape trafficking seriously, it will continue to grow, threatening the very survival of our closest relatives,” he says.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime has released a new report on great ape trafficking.
The under-reporting of great apes seized in illegal trade incidents, both nationally and internationally, is flagged as a serious problem in bringing a true appreciation of the great ape trafficking situation to the attention of governments, international organizations, and the media. Relevant institutions in the UN system and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are singled out as needing improvement in their approaches concerning the illegal trade in great apes.
By far the main demand driver for removing African great apes from the wild is for bushmeat, sold in local markets or transported to urban areas. Great ape body parts, particularly skulls and hands, have a local market for use in traditional medicine or rituals, and the skulls are sometimes purchased overseas by collectors, academic institutions and artists. Several seizures have been made of great ape skulls nationally or shipped internationally.
This report deals only with live African great ape trafficking, but infant capture often results as a byproduct of bushmeat hunting. Another potential deleterious impact of the illegal great ape trade was thrust into the spotlight by the COVID-19 pandemic. The most likely cause of the pandemic is that the virus passed from an infected wild animal to humans in a food market,4 although the possibility of a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology is favoured by some.
Most illegal great ape imports are done without veterinary health inspections or certificates, which raises considerably the risk of introducing one or more zoo-notic diseases to humans in destination countries. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised government and public awareness about the health risks involved in the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), which may lead to better legislation aimed at controlling this frequently ignored threat.
This report describes the evolution of this recent black market, which is different in important respects from the traditional exotic animal markets that preceded it. In some countries, the political and economic interests of corrupt government and law enforcement officials facilitate the illegal trade and hinder effective actions to stop it. Even international organizations dedicated to wildlife conservation are not free from the political and economic interests that impede successful trafficking-mitigation efforts, particularly in the case of great apes.
Editor’s note: Great ape capture in the wild and traffickingfor the exotic pet trade has been rising for about two years. Prices for the infants have also been rising, providing even more incentiveto the traffickers to increase their efforts. This new twist to infant capture introduces an alarming development that hopefully will be nipped in the bud.This article summarizes the situation at the time of writing. It is not over yet.
This is the ‘first incident in the world’ where baby apes have been kidnapped for ransom. The abductors have demanded a six-figure sum and threatened to harm the chimpanzees if their demands are not met
Three baby chimpanzees have been kidnapped in Congo for ransom. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)
In a first, three baby chimpanzees have been kidnapped from an animal sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The kidnappers have demanded a six-figure ransom to free the three baby chimps– Monga, César and Hussein, reported The New York Times (NYT).
“This is the first time in the world that baby apes were kidnapped for ransom,” Franck Chantereau, co-founder of the sanctuary where the kidnapping took place, told CNN.
The sanctuary – Young Animals Confiscated in Katanga (shortened to JACK in French) in Congo’s Lubumbashi – houses 40 chimpanzees and 64 monkeys of 14 species that have been rescued from Congo’s illegal wildlife trade, notes NYT.
How did the kidnapping take place and why were the chimps targeted?
Let’s take a closer look:
The abduction
As per CNN, the kidnappers broke into the sanctuary around 3 am on 9 September and took away three of the five baby chimpanzees rescued by Franck this year.
His wife Roxane Chantereau, co-founder of the sanctuary, received three texts and a video on WhatsApp showing two baby chimpanzees moving across a dirty floor covered with tumbled furniture, as per NYT.
As the video panned across the room, the third chimp was seen standing on a dresser with her arms tied over her head.
In the three voice messages, the kidnappers threatened to kill the chimpanzees unless Roxane paid the ransom money. Further, they reportedly threatened to kill her and abduct her two children.
“They told us that they had planned to kidnap my children because they were supposed to come here on vacation. But they didn’t come so the kidnappers took these three babies hostage and demanded a large amount of ransom from us,” Franck was quoted as saying by CNN.
The kidnappers claimed to have drugged the chimpanzees and threatened to hurt the hostage animals if their demand was not fulfilled.
The kidnappers have demanded a six-figure ransom to release the three baby chimps. Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)
A few days later, Roxane Chantereau again received texts from the kidnappers warning that they will decapitate one of the baby chimpanzees and sell the other two to Chinese traffickers, Franck told NYT.
He stated they have not heard from the abductors for two weeks now which is “worrying” them.
He stated the authorities have taken the case “very seriously” and “consider the robbing of these babies as a security threat for the country,” NYT reported.
Franck said the sanctuary is unable to pay the ransom money, adding that if they heed the demand, this incident is likely to occur again in the coming months. Expressing apprehension, he told CNN there is no guarantee if the chimps will be returned even after the kidnappers are paid.
The authorities are also not in favour of paying the ransom.
Calling the abduction “inhumane and unnatural”, Michel Koyakpa, media adviser to DRC’s environment minister, told CNN, “we will not give in to this kind of demand”.
Koyakpa said the search is on to find the stolen baby chimpanzees.
Notably, Congo, which has a rich biodiversity, offers sanctuaries the same legal protections as national parks.
Sanctuary targeted earlier
In 2006, months after the sanctuary was opened, a group of people had broken in and torched the baby chimps’ sleeping place, leading to the death of two of the five apes that were there then, reports CNN.
While in September 2013, the sanctuary’s education center was targeted and set ablaze by miscreants, however, there were no fatalities.
Illegal wildlife trafficking
Illegal wildlife trade is not rare in Congo. It is the only country in Africa where all four great apes– chimpanzees, bonobos, western gorillas and eastern gorillas– are found.
Congo has become a hotspot for wildlife trafficking.
The illegal trade of ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales, and poaching of live baby chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos has become rampant in Congo amid increase in demand for primates in China, Pakistan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, Franck told NYT.
This is the first time that an ape has been kidnapped from a sanctuary in Africa for ransom. Wikimedia Commons (Representational Image)
However, this is the first time that an ape has been kidnapped from a sanctuary in Africa for ransom.
Franck said the buyers of these exotic animals are mostly rich people. He added that they do not understand the consequences of their action as to capture one baby, an entire family of up to 10 adults is killed by poachers.
Experts fear that if the kidnappers are not punished, there can be more kidnappings for ransom. “If they get away with this, these cases are going to happen over and over again,” Adams Cassinga, founder of Conserv Congo, a nonprofit group battling wildlife trafficking in DRC, told NYT.
He said the Congo government and global community must come together and send a stern message that such incidents will not be “tolerated”.
Bua Noi, meaning Little Lotus in Thai, has festered in a bleak cage on top of a Bangkok department store for the last 33 years, deprived of sunlight and natural vegetation. She has never smelled the scents of nature that would float in on a fresh breeze in her tropical forest homeland back in Central Africa. She has never experienced the joy of having a baby. I therefore empathized as she glared at me with a ferocious scowl through the bars the first time I saw her many years ago.
Bua Noi glared at me with a ferocious scowl through the bars. I understood why.
Bua Noi has the distinction of being the only gorilla in all of Thailand. This gorilla has become the standard bearer for all the thousands of captive wild animals exploited for commercial gain in Thailand. She might also be the key to freeing many more illegally captured and trafficked wild animals held in private zoos and safari parks and putting a halt to a thriving trade that threatens endangered species. A highly disputed question has been, was Bua Noi acquired legally? If not, there can be a legal case for freeing her.
Pata Zoo is the Guantanamo Bay of the world’s worst zoos – no amount of campaigning seems able to close it. Bua Noi is its star prisoner, the focus of campaigns by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the Thai animal welfare crusader Sinjira Apaitan, who has launched a Change.org petition that is closing in on its target of 150,000 signatures requesting the release of Bua Noi.
This mural is as green as it gets in Pata Zoo. One enters through a side door.
Background
Pata Zoo was opened in 1983 by Vinai Sermsirimongkol, a businessman who owned the seven-story high Pata Pinklao Department Store in the unfashionable west side of the Chaophraya River, which cuts through Bangkok, Thailand’s capital and largest city (8.2 million people). Vinai converted the top two floors into a zoo, with cabinets holding reptiles and amphibians on the sixth floor and mammals in cramped cages on the top floor, including chimpanzees, orangutans, tigers, other big cats, bears and a male gorilla that Vinai named King Kong, who arrived in 1984 with a CITES export permit from the Aachen Bird and Animal Park in West Germany. The Thai CITES import permit was issued to Siam Farm Zoological Garden, Bangkok. No further details are known, unfortunately, since this trade was not reported to the CITES Trade Database by either country, an infraction of CITES regulations, since Great Apes are Appendix I – no commercial trade from the wild.
When Vinai died, his younger brother Kanit took over and has been fighting doggedly to keep “the world’s saddest zoo” open to the public. A 2010 story in The Guardiannewspaper quotes Kanit as saying that, “…the zoo is a respite for people looking to escape the concrete jungle of Bangkok and to reconnect with nature. The animals are especially popular with children.”
The zoo is popular with children, but what do they learn about the natural world seeing animals that should be wild in cages?
The comment about children is true, but there is nothing resembling “nature” in the concrete, barren zoo. I first visited the Pata Zoo in Bangkok in 2013 while attending the 16th CITES Conference of the Parties, a massive gathering of over 4,000 people concerned with the fate of the world’s wild plants and animals. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulates trade in over 37,000 wild species. I had been invited to attend because I was the lead author on a United Nations report on illegal great ape trade entitled Stolen Apes that was being launched at the conference.
Stolen Apes was the first comprehensive study on great ape trafficking ever published by the United Nations.
I found the zoo to be a deplorable place to hold animals, with desolate cages marred by rusted bars and concrete floors. Big cats paced back and forth in well-worn tracks or slept, while great apes reached out for bananas offered by visitors or stared forlornly through the bars. Bua Noi seemed frustrated and angry at being cooped up for 26 years (in 2013) in a prison with no vegetation. King Kong had died in 2007, so the last six years she had been alone.
Great apes reach out for bananas more out of boredom than hunger.
I revisited the zoo in 2019 and found Bua Noi and the other great apes where I had left them six years earlier. It was heartbreaking to think that they had been there all that time, in addition to all of the years since they had arrived. There was even a bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee) in a dark cell above a chimpanzee cage, which I had not noticed before – perhaps arrived in the interim? No bonobo imports to Thailand are reported in the CITES Trade Database. No gorilla imports to Thailand are reported in the CITES Trade Database. So how could Bua Noi be a legally acquired import as the Bangkok Post reported in a 2014 story, repeated in 2020?
There was a bonobo in 2019 that I hadn’t seen in 2013. Where did it come from?
I knew from personal investigations that a steady stream of orangutans were smuggled into Thailand to feed its commercial zoo industry, so it would not be surprising if gorillas and bonobos were as well.
The Western Lowland Gorilla studbook indicates that both gorillas in Pata Zoo originated in the wild. The compiler erroneously entered Guinea instead of Equatorial Guinea. Guinea has no gorillas.
During the 2019 visit I was in Bangkok with a cameraman shooting footage for a film series on great ape trafficking entitled “Stolen Apes”. One of the series focuses on Bua Noi. A man holding a monkey who seemed to be a supervisor came up to us and asked us to stop filming. I asked him, “Where does this gorilla come from?” He replied, “She was born in a German zoo, came here legally 30 years ago.”
The man holding a monkey, who seemed to be the manager, said that Bua Noi came from a German zoo.
I could elicit no more information from him. I decided to get to the bottom of the question of from where and how Little Lotus did in fact find herself at Pata Zoo. I combed through old copies of the very informative International Primate Protection League newsletters, exchanged emails with IPPL’s founder Shirley McGreal, scoured the gorilla studbooks, used Google to search out old stories on Pata Zoo and Bua Noi on the Internet, searched various NGO websites and social media accounts of individuals named who were connected with gorilla trafficking and reviewed the TRAFFIC reports on great ape trade.
From the information amassed I have reconstructed a scenario that is consistent with known facts.
Bibi received the order for four more baby gorillas in July 1987 from his father Walter, who was in Hohenstadt near Nuremberg in what was then West Germany. Walter Sensen moved back in 1985 from Equatorial Guinea, a former colony of Spain, to Hohenstadt because of a few brushes with the authorities, just as earlier in 1981 he had had to escape from neighboring Cameroon. Bibi replaced Walter in 1985 and now lived in Bata, a pleasant town on the Equatorial Guinea coast about 30 kilometers south of the border with Cameroon. Walter and Bibi were wild animal traffickers supplying shady zoos around the world with rare animals using their company African Animal Export. Bribes had secured them a five-year exclusive contract with the government for exports of gorillas and chimpanzees.
The Sensens’ company African Animal Export operated out of Bata, Equatorial Guinea, in red circle, from 1985 to 1991. They bought up gorillas and chimpanzees and exported them to zoos around the world.
Bibi, real name Bernd Sensen, sent out word to his contacts in the villages of Rio Muni (mainland Equatorial Guinea) and nearby Cameroon and Gabon that he needed baby gorillas. Kurt Schafer, a known bird and animal trafficker, and Dr. Daeng of Siam Farm in Bangkok had put in an order for the four infants. By early September Bibi had the four infant gorillas, two males and two females, all under a year old. The gorilla mothers ended up as bushmeat, killed and butchered in front of their terrified infants.
Equatorial Guinea was not a member of CITES at the time and the Sensen’s had an in with the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Enterprise, Florencio Esoro Obiang Angue, who signed a ministerial export permit number 381 for the four gorillas. Bernd submitted the permit to the Thailand CITES Management Authority in Bangkok and requested an import permit. Thailand rejected the minister’s document as not equivalent to a CITES export permit. Since gorillas were listed as CITES Appendix I, protected from commercial trade, Bernd knew that without a Thai import permit they had a problem.
Walter made some telephone calls to traders he knew and made a new arrangement. Only one gorilla would go to Thailand – it was too risky shipping all four now that the Thailand authorities were alerted – and two would go to Aritake Chojouten in Japan, a notorious animal trafficker. It wouldn’t be difficult to find a buyer for the fourth. Bibi got hold of Wabi Bello, a Nigerian trafficker who specialized in African grey parrots, to get him a certificado de origen. The Certificate of Origin had Wabi Bello’s name on it and showed that he was exporting one gorilla that weighed 10 kilograms to Siam Farm Zoological Garden, Bangkok, Thailand. The document had official-looking stamps on it, so Bibi was happy and paid Bello the agreed price.
Wabi Bello was arrested for trafficking parrots. He agreed to sign a Certificate of Origin for Bibi’s gorillas.
Bernd Sensen flew with the four gorillas as personal effects to Spain on Iberia airlines, using Minister Angue’s export permit. On 9 September 1987 he shipped the baby gorilla from Spain to Bangkok with the certificado de origen and two were shipped the same month to Chojouten in Japan, where he sold them to Chiba City Municipal Zoo for US$575,000. Fraudulent documents claimed that the two gorillas were bred in Ringland Circus, a modest outfit that toured Spain, it didn’t even have a permanent home.
The Iberia airlines waybill for Bua Noi identified the recipient as Dr. Daeng, Pata Zoo, Bangkok. The Pata Zoo owner, Vinai Sermsirimongkol, paid Siam Farm the agreed price for Bua Noi, just as he had paid them for Bwana in 1984. Vinai hoped that when Bua Noi became old enough she would mate with Bwana, now renamed King Kong, and give him valuable offspring to sell and recoup his expenses.
Bua Noi was shipped from Equatorial Guinea via Spain to Bangkok, arriving 10 September 1987.
Walter Sensen was convicted and jailed for 2 years on 14 March 1990 in West Germany for illegally shipping three gorillas from Cameroon in January 1987 to Taiwan. He was later freed on appeal and continued to export gorillas and other great apes from Central Africa, assisted by his son Bernd. The situation became so alarming that the CITES Secretariat had to issue a Notification in 1988 warning CITES Parties not to accept imports of CITES-listed species from Equatorial Guinea.
The Sensen exports from Equatorial Guinea became so alarming that CITES issued a Notification.
So Bua Noi was not born in a German zoo, was not imported legally from anywhere, but rather she was just one of many ill-fated gorilla and chimpanzee infants captured in the wild by bushmeat hunters who killed their mothers and sold them off to traffickers. In the 33 years that Little Lotus has been suffering in her concrete cage in Pata Zoo she has paid back the zoo owners many times over what she cost them.
Khun Kanit Sermsirimongkol, Pata Zoo owner, holds Little Lotus’s fate in his hands, as the Thailand government maintains that the gorilla entered the country legally. This article might change their minds. (Photo courtesy of the film Stolen Apes).
What now?
Recently, Sinjira joined forces with Polish activist Joanna Sobkowicz to launch the website freegorilla.org to raise awareness of Bua Noi’s story and give updates about the campaign to free her.
“I met with Kanit in 2014”, Sinjira told me, “he promised to move all of the large animals from the rooftop by 2020. I am waiting.”
Sinjiri Apaitan, far right, and Joanna Sobkowicz have been speaking with Thailand government officials about the possibility of freeing Bua Noi. (Photo courtesy of freegorilla.org)
There are two possibilities of where Bua Noi could go, if freed. The first is to a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, the second is to be repatriated back to Central Africa. As with most alternative choices, there are pros and cons with both.
In June the famous singer Cher came on board with her Free the Wild organization. Cher has written a personal letter to the Honourable Minister Varawut Silpa-Archa (Thailand Ministry of Natural Resources), requesting his urgent assistance for the rescue and release of Bua and the other primates kept at the zoo.
Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, the co-founder of Free the Wild, said, “I can advise that things are looking very hopeful.” After the success of freeing Kaavan, a lone elephant in the Islamabad Zoo, Free the Wild should be taken seriously.
The famous American singer and actress Cher is campaigning to free Bua Noi with her Free the Wild organization.
Damian Aspinall of the Aspinall Foundation is ready to sponsor and transport Bua Noi to a sanctuary in the Congo, which is actually in the general area from which she was stolen.
Will Little Lotus be able to return to her native forest from which Bibi stole her?
The alternative possibility is a wildlife sanctuary located not too far from Bangkok. The sanctuary has a good track record for looking after rescued wild animals properly and it will also accept other primates from Pata Zoo, including chimpanzees, orangutans and the bonobo.
Back to Africa might sound like the ideal solution to Bua Noi’s plight, but transport from Bangkok to Brazzaville, with layovers and plane changes, could be quite hazardous for a 33-year old female gorilla. The stress would be extreme. The maximum age for females in captivity is about 40 to 50 years, so she is probably close to the average age for mortality right now. Adjusting to life in a forest, even one where she would be supervised, could be a shock for Bua Noi, who reportedly has become attached to her two regular caregivers at Pata Zoo.
Transport from Bangkok to the sanctuary would take about two hours by road. The surroundings are pleasant, with plenty of natural vegetation, fresh air and sunlight. With luck, one or two of her regular caregivers could go with her, at least for a transitioning period, to help her adjust to her new surroundings.
And Khun Kanit Sermsirimongkol, Pata Zoo owner, could come to visit her, as he cares about Bua Noi as well. It would be a generous gesture on Khun Kanit’s part, gaining him the appreciation and respect of the international community and the Thai people.
With the verification provided here that demonstrates that Bua Noi was acquired in the wild and shipped and imported illegally into Thailand, there are good grounds to justify that she be freed.
Illegal capture of endangered species in the wild for commercial zoos and the exotic pet trade is an enormous problem. Added risks of zoonotic spillover events are only too evident with the current COVID-19 pandemic. Commercial zoos such as Pata and many others like it encourage human-animal interaction for a fee (framed selfie photos, petting, playing, etc.). Three-quarters of all emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, transferred from animals to humans, facilitated by environmental destruction and wildlife crime.
It is in the best interests of both humans and animals that commercial zoos and safari parks stop importing animals captured in the wild. Closing Pata Zoo and freeing Bua Noi would help current efforts to stop this type of wildlife trade and signal to the world that change is possible.
[1] Walter Sensen has passed away, but a draft of this article was sent to Bernd Sensen asking for corrections or comments. None have been received.
I was very occupied the next few days with my other operation in Africa. I heard from Jeffrey that nothing happened on the 30th of November, there were mis-communications between Khun Lee and Ton, Tom’s agent. Tom called Jeffrey in his room at the hotel the night of the 30th, scaring the heck out him, which he later wrote up for the NYT. Jeffrey left Bangkok on the 1st.
On 1st December I WhatsApped Freeland: “…give me an update.” They replied, “…again it was a no-show, we will need to wait and try again tomorrow.”
Since nothing seemed to be happening, I emailed Freeland on 2nd December:
“Hi R. and [Khun Lee],
I was thinking, what if I started communicating with Tom again directly? I can say I’m back in Bangkok and very keen to receive the orangs and pay the money and be done with it. What did you say to explain my absence?
I think I could sign back onto WhatsApp with my former number if you stop using it. I will have to sign on again and they will send a 6-digit code to the number, which you will receive. Then you will have to pass it on to me so I can verify.
Brief me on what has been said, and send me some screen grabs. We can say that I’m going to meet them with Mr. Lee to do the exchange.
Regards,
Xxxx”
Back then, a WhatsApp account was tied to a device, not to a SIM card. So even if the SIM card of the number the WhatsApp account was set up with was not in one’s phone, you could still operate it as long as you inserted the verification code. Since then, WhatsApp has done an update that allows it to detect the SIM card so the account will only operate with the device and SIM card together.
R. of Freeland replied immediately:
“Just to update you for yesterday, Ton lied to us and said he was delivering the kids in a black Toyota, this story later changed to ‘they will be delivered by taxi’. We waited until about 7:30, our driver was then asked to travel to Chanthaburi and would be paid 20,000 THB to deliver the Orangs. At this point we refused to proceed and called it a day.
Both [Khun Lee] and I agree that your plan would be a good idea. Please call me at your earliest convenience and we can do this while we are all together so I can pass you the 6-digit code.”
Chanthaburi? That was like a 5-hour drive southeast from Bangkok to a town only 40 km from the Cambodia border. It didn’t make any sense.
I called them and got the WhatsApp account using my Thai mobile phone number set up on my phone. I saw that Tom had sent me a message saying “Hello” at 18:35 on 29th November and another message early the morning of 30th November saying:
“Use this code to verify my WhatsApp messages and calls to you are end-to-end encrypted:
[three lines of numbered code]
No one had replied to either of Tom’s messages. Khun Lee had the SIM card, had he even put it in a phone to read Tom’s messages? That’s why Tom called Jeffrey’s hotel room the night of the 30th, no one was answering my number.
I discovered that Exoticpet88 was back online. This photo of the kids was posted 1st December:
These two were posted 3rd December:
This photo was posted on @exoticpetworld on 1st December:
Because Nick had disappeared, Tom was advertising the kids for sale. It would be disaster if someone else bought them.
On 2nd December I WhatsApped R. at Freeland: “Exoticpet88 is back and showing the kids.”
No response, so on 4th December I emailed R.:
“Strangely, the Instagram account exoticpet88 (https://www.instagram.com/exoticpet88/) is back online. The account had no posts from 27 April, then was kicked off of Instagram in around October, I don’t know how they got back on. They are showing the kids from 1st December. The account they replaced it with is still functioning (https://www.instagram.com/exoticpetworld/) and also showing the kids.
I hope Khun [Lee] was serious about refunding me the THB 100,000. Are you going to try and arrest the bank account holder for fraud?”
No reply.
On a whim, I thought I would try contacting Tom using my +27 South Africa WhatsApp, which I had on another mobile phone:
Tom never replied to the old David WhatsApp number.
Still no reply from R., but on 6th December I was copied an email from the head of Freeland to Jeffrey, offering to collaborate on future sting operations to generate stories. One line caught my eye: “You saw [Lee] and [E.] in action during the on-the-job training support.” So Inspector X was being trained, he wasn’t an experienced police operative. I thought he looked young. The head of Freeland concluded: “Meanwhile, believe it or not, Op Kid continues in SE Asia. Hopefully more to come, but lets see.” He didn’t sound overly optimistic.
I received nothing more until 8th December, when R. sent a WhatsApp for me to call. I spoke with R. and with Khun Lee. I tried to formulate a plan of how Khun Lee could act as my agent in Bangkok to conclude the deal with Tom in my absence, me pretending to be in Phuket. I would contact Tom with my usual WhatsApp, saying that after no one had delivered the kids as agreed, I went back to Phuket. I would say I left the $17,150 with Khun Lee to pay for the kids. So if Tom was still in Bangkok, I would authorize Khun Lee to meet with Tom, make sure the kids were in good health, and give him the cash and take the kids. I would fly up to Bangkok and bring the kids back to Phuket.
Talking to Khun Lee about setting up how the sting would go was like an old Abbott and Costello skit, “who’s on first?”, except there was no humor in it. It was almost as if he didn’t want a concrete plan of who would do what, where and when. The call concluded with no clear understanding of what the next steps would be.
I contacted Tom on 15th December:
Nick: Lee is an idiot I don’t know what is wrong with him. I am trying to get my money back from him. When you didn’t show up Sunday or Monday 2 weeks ago I left money with him. I got fed up and left Tuesday. Lee has over $17,000 of my money. Why didn’t you meet to give kids and take money? I only get nonsense answers from Lee
Tom only replied with a photo:
[Next Day]
Nick: Ohhh they look adorable! Can I send someone to see them? If everything looks good I’ll fly up and we’ll finish it
Tom: Ok
Tom: Give me the number of your person .
Nick: Let me find someone I have to ask them. Do they have to go very far from Bangkok?
Tom: Just a bit . but we can easily work it out to see your kids .
Tom: Did you get your money back , Sir ?
Tom: Mr. Lee , Sir . your 17,000 $ .
Nick: Lee said he would give my money when I came up again
Tom: Ok.
[I didn’t want Khun Lee to run the op, so contacted Noi to see if she was in Bangkok. She wasn’t, she had left the country for something. But she sent me these screenshots from after the blown meeting of 1st or 2nd December, it wasn’t clear from R.’s communications which day the attempted meet took place:
This was the result of Khun Lee’s great management skills. I sent these screenshots to R. and said someone else should manage the sting meet for Freeland. R. said ‘Eddy’ would do it, one of their Thai operatives.
[Two days later]
Tom: Hi
Tom: Any update yet , Sir ? Holidays are approaching and I think we should plan as soon as we can .
Nick: I finally found someone who said they can contact you tomorrow. I don’t know that many people in Bangkok I had to ask Noi. She refused but said she knew someone who had time
Tom: Ok
Tom: So he will come to see the kids and take it ?
Tom: In fact I can send down the kids for you too but we have to manage how I should get paid and safe for both of us .
[Next day]
Nick: Noi said this guy can go look to see if kids are healthy and if they are I’ll come to pay and take them. His number is +66 64 275 xxxx
[This was Eddy’s number]
Tom: Ok
Tom: Let me forward the number now .
Nick: Ok
Tom: Noi told me you were inspired to get otans babies because you saw them in phuket zoo , rite ?
Nick: Yes. I was there with Jeffrey and they looked so cute
Tom: Great .
Tom: They got two babies , rite ?
Nick: Yes the keeper told me they got them from a zoo in Bangkok
Tom: But kept in the zoo is not good for them .
Tom: Really
[This was rich coming from an ape slaver.]
Nick: I think they were born in a zoo so what to do?
Tom: If they were captive born then should be OK . safari world in Bangkok got lots of jubenile otans when I was there
Tom: And at least ten little babies they got .
Tom: They breed them quite successful .
[More useful intel on Tom, he had inside info at Bangkok Safari World]
Nick: Really?
Tom: Yes
Tom: A lots of them .
Tom: My agent talked to Eddy today .
Tom: Eddy will go and meet your kids in the next couple of days .
Nick: I should have asked if they wanted to sell. Can they sell to individuals? Is eddy noi’s friend?
Tom: Eddy is nois contact .
Nick: Ok fine I hope he goes soon
[I was trying to distance myself from Eddy, in case Tom asked me any questions about who he was. If asked, my story was that Noi just gave me the phone number with no name.]
Tom: They can’t sell to private person .
Nick: What I thought
Tom: In fact Eddy could take back the kids for you if you want .
Tom: He can go inspect , inform you and take it back if you want .
Nick: Lee would have to give him the money. Let me think about it and find out from Noi more about who eddy is
Tom: Ok , Sir .
[Next day]
Tom: Hello
Nick: Hello
Tom: Have you spoken to Noi about Eddy ?
Tom: My guy in bkk is on stand by for you
Nick: She hasn’t answered my call maybe she’s busy. I sent her message to call me
Tom: Ok
Nick: Noi called me and said Eddy is very trustworthy. He will go look at the kids and if they are in good health he will let me know and I will tell Lee to deposit the money. Should it go into the same account as before?
Tom: Yes , Sir .
Tom: Ok
Tom: I will tell my local guy to set up meeting with Eddy , Sir .
Nick: Wonderful
Tom: Will.update
[I was in communications with R. and another Freeland staff member coordinating the meet between Eddy and Tom’s agent. We were all on the same page. It was disappointing that Tom would not be there for the sting, but hopefully his agent would be able to spill the beans on the network and the true identities of Tom and others.]
[Next day, 21 December 2016]
Nick: Hello Tom. Eddy is not answering his phone. Did he pick up the kids?
Tom: My guy is waiting for him since one hour .
Tom: He said he is on the sky train
Nick: Ok I’ll try to be patient
Tom: Ok
Tom: Eddy called you back yet ?
[Tom’s guy never took the kids to a vet. The deal was supposed to be a handover of the kids to Eddy, Eddy would inform Lee, and Lee would deposit the final payment. I received a call from Freeland that the courier had been arrested and the kids seized by the police. I later discovered that the sting had been held in a mall parking garage. Why? What happened to the plan to make the arrest in the vet’s office? I was never to receive an answer to my question.]
Nick: Noi told me kids were seized. What do l do?
[No reply]
On 25th December I sent a last message:
Nick: Merry Christmas Tom
The +855 81 number went dead, never to return to service, and the Exoticpet88 and Exoticpetworld IG accounts disappeared from the Internet.
There was considerable media coverage of the sting (selected):
I only found out later that there was only a taxi driver in the car, no ‘agent’ of Tom’s – unless the driver was the agent.
The kids were taken to a government wildlife holding facility outside of Bangkok.
I tried for weeks to get news from Freeland of what was happening with the case, but no one would give me a straight answer, just saying it was in progress. I didn’t even know if anyone had been arrested or if a prosecution was planned. I thought at least Jirapat, the person in whose bank account I had made the deposit, could be prosecuted. I only found out from tweets on Edwin Wiek’s Twitter account later what happened.
Nothing. No arrests, no prosecutions, no investigation. The only good outcome, other than preventing the trafficking of the kids, was Jeffrey’s New York Times article, which came out almost a year after the sting:
Editor’s note: This comprehensive account describes the prodigious effort it took to set up relations with a large-scale exotic pet trafficker based in Southeast Asia and pull off a sting operation. Exoticpet88, the name of an Instagram account, was reputedly run by a kingpin animal trafficker named Joe. The account advertised a wide range of wildlife species for sale, with most of the animals or birds being captured in the wild. Exoticpet88 operated a farm on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, where it held the animals before shipment. The network was made up of field wildlife collectors in Southeast Asia and wildlife suppliers further afield in Africa and Latin America, inferred from the species seen in online posts. They had particularly strong connections with traders and buyers in the Middle East and South Asia.
It took 5 months of effort, with dead-ends, stops and starts, shifts in undercover identities, and great persistence to finally lay a trap aimed at catching the head of the Exoticpet88 network in the act of illegally selling two infant orangutans. The undercover investigator used various aliases and this narrative describes how others assisted in the operation. The investigator last used the alias Nick and this is his story.
PART I – David and Joe
I first heard of Exoticpet88 in late December, 2015, when Patricia emailed me with a screenshot of his Instagram account as it appeared on a mobile phone. She wrote, “Instagram account exoticpet88 … is apparently a man who calls himself Joy [sic] in Thailand. He exports all kinds of animals to the Arab countries via the Oman airport. He sends gibbons with dogs in crates, so the dogs’ barking veil the gibbons. He is one of many Thai dealers, I’m told, that do the same. They take animals from all over Southeast Asia (gibbons, lorises, orangs, etc.). He even has a picture of a clouded leopard on the attached image.”
I first met Patricia Tricorache of the Cheetah Conservation Fund electronically in June, 2015, when she emailed me out of the blue asking if I knew anything about cheetah cub capture and trafficking from the Horn of Africa. I said I didn’t, but that I’d seen quite a few posts on social media of cheetahs either being offered for sale or being flaunted by proud owners, mainly in the Gulf. Since we were both engaged in investigating illegal wildlife trade, me with great apes and her with cheetahs, we agreed to collaborate. Soon after that, she began sharing with me a very large collection of material that she had amassed from years of work. I had only started looking at Facebook and Instagram accounts in March of that year, so Patricia’s information provided me with a huge boost.
I reciprocated by sending her the account links of cheetahs I came across, after checking first with her Excel spreadsheet that listed those she had already found. We soon had an active exchange system running, demonstrating the truth of the adage that ‘two heads are better than one’.
Over time I developed my methodology of how I would find new traffickers, figure out who was linked with whom, who was a dealer, who an exotic pet owner (i.e. buyer), who was both, and discerning the networks of suppliers, middlemen, clients and those who collaborated closely with one another. It took a while to determine the composition of the interlinked wildlife trafficking networks based in South, Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Americans, Europeans and Hong Kong Chinese also appeared in the exchanges, but not mainland Chinese. I thought this odd, until I discovered that China does not allow Facebook or Instagram to operate. Chinese use mainly Weibo, Alibaba, Taobao (owned by Alibaba) and WeChat to conduct the trafficking business.
The way I recorded the information I found online also evolved over time. After about a year I had down pat how I would crop the screen grab to include the photo, the name of the account, any important comments on it (which might mean more than one screenshot if I had to scroll down) and the date. I would label the screenshot in a numbered sequence with the date of the post DD/MM/YR. I downloaded mainly great ape posts, but I also started collecting information including contact emails and mobile/WhatsApp numbers, other social media accounts, posts of financial transactions (some of the traffickers actually posted bank transfer and deposit documents), visits to other countries, group photos, Friends and Followers of interest, and any other photos that might provide useful information about activities, identities and locations. I discovered that re-posts of the same animal photo on different accounts was fairly common, which created problems for identifying who made the original post and when it was made. Some ‘for sale’ advertisement posts were also deleted after a sale was made, creating more difficulties in recording everything that was going on, as I must have missed many of those. I made up a couple of Excel databases, one with the names and data by country, the other with the names and numbers of each species seen to get a count.
The work was extremely time-consuming and as the number of persons-of-interest (POI) increased, it became progressively more difficult to monitor all of the existing POIs and add new ones. Some of the POIs had multiple Facebook (FB) and/or Instagram (IG) accounts in different names, and determining that took time. Accounts would also close from time to time, I was never certain of the reason, and sometimes I could find a new one pop up owned by the same POI as a recently closed account.
Back to Exoticpet88
Patricia gave me access to her screengrabs of Exoticpet88. Most were crops of the photos only, but some were whole page screen grabs so I could see the photo, name of the account, a few comments and how long ago it was posted. One of these proved that the account owner was based in Jakarta and strongly suggested he was selling chimpanzees. Where were they coming from? The screengrab was dated 14 July 2014 and it was 87 weeks old, so posted around April 2012. There were other posts of chimpanzees, infant orangutans, all kinds of monkeys, big cat cubs, red pandas, reptiles (including crocodiles) and colorful birds. On many of his posts and in his profile he gave his email address. In early 2016, the Exoticpet88 account disappeared from Instagram.
“I am in Jakarta”. Exoticpet88 was selling chimpanzees. Where were they coming from?
I made some enquiries and was told that Joe had quit the exotic pet trading business. Some time earlier I had come across a Kuwaiti who announced he was quitting the business. His IG moniker was @exoticpet, plus other accounts with a variation on the name. Was there a connection with @exoticpet88?
An IG account owned by a Kuwaiti animal trafficker.
In August 2016 I decided to contact the old @exoticpet88 email address with an alias name email account I had set up for other purposes years earlier, so if @exoticpet88 checked it he would see it was old and not one set up recently just to contact him.
I wrote, “Hello, are you still in business? I’m looking for something.”
Three weeks later a ‘Joe TK <exoticpet88@gmail.com>’ replied:
I’d struck pay dirt! Over two weeks later I replied, “Am looking for young otans.” In previous communications with Indonesian traffickers some referred to orangutans as ‘otans’, so I thought using the term would show Joe that I was not a novice.
The next day he replied, “Give me your cell number pls”.
Two days later I responded, “Use WhatsApp +XXXXXXXXXX”, giving him a WhatsApp number from a country I was not in, to help hide my identity. As I travelled around I opened WhatsApp accounts on different devices with the country codes and numbers of the different countries. As long as we stuck with WhatsApp I was okay, but if he wanted a cell phone call I was dead, unless I was actually in the country of the number at the time.
Joe got back to me the next day with the message below.
A zoo license? I guessed he was being careful, trying not to appear to be what he was – a big-time exotic pet trafficker, as his IG handle indicated. Our conversation progressed as shown below. I’m the green-coloured text.
The person I thought was Joe called me by mobile service network, not WhatsApp audio, I imagine to confirm that I actually was in South Africa. I was using a +27 country code SIM card and just happened to be in South Africa at the time. The man spoke reasonably good English with what sounded like a Malaysian or Indonesian accent. He said that Joe was no longer running @exoticpet88, but that he was. He said for me to call him Tom. After speaking briefly, he sent me a video of a young orangutan he said was for sale. He asked me if I knew a wildlife trader in South Africa named Eddy. I said I didn’t. I later passed the name on to someone who studied wildlife trade based in South Africa with TRAFFIC. He hadn’t heard of any Eddy either.
His mobile number was +855 81 followed by six numbers. I went online to see if I could trace it, using Truecaller and a reverse caller number lookup app, plus just using a Google search. Nothing. A +855 area code is both the country code for Cambodia and a toll-free number that can be purchased for use in the USA and Canada. But there was no ‘81’ city code for Cambodia and the only five mobile prefixes in the country were +855 11, 12, 15, 16 and 18. No 81. All the North American +855 numbers require seven following numbers, and Joe’s was eight. Indeed a mystery.
It was now the 3rd of October, I was leaving South Africa on the 5th. There was a New York Times journalist very interested in doing a story on great ape trafficking and he was eager to go along with me to witness the sting and arrest, but it was difficult setting a time when he could go to Indonesia. That explains my “am checking with partner and buyer” above. I flew to another country on the 5th and contacted Tom on 6th October with the South African WhatsApp number.
I had found that Tom or his associates had set up a new IG account in September or October 2016 called @exoticpetworld and many of the posts were re-posts from @exoticpet88.
This post of an orangutan infant posted on 10th October 2016 was first posted on @exoticpet88 in 2014.
It looked like Tom and/or his associates were reviving the online business.
Otans selling quickly to China was not good news. I knew that there was a rapidly expanding zoo and safari park industry there, orangutans were popular.
I was in Dubai 18-22 October to collect information about wildlife traffickers operating there from various sources that I had developed over the previous two-and-a-half years. I replaced the South African SIM card with a UAE one.
I traced the number to Byat Juma bin Byat, one of the owners of Amazonpet, a major exotic animal trafficker in the UAE. I had recently visited their two pet shops in Al Warsan, on the outskirts of Dubai, and had been monitoring their ads of great apes, gibbons, tiger and lion cubs and other endangered species for a couple of years. I had even posted comments on their IG account asking to buy chimpanzees, but no reply, and then on 19th October while in Dubai I sent a message by WhatsApp to the number advertised on their IG account asking to buy an ape pet. They replied that they only had reptiles. I thought it was too risky to contact them again with the same UAE number and a different cover story. By 23 October, when Tom sent me the number, I had already left Dubai and could not therefore buy a new UAE SIM card. Bad timing.
Six months earlier, in March 2016 Amazonpet posted this photo, along with many others around the same time, of apes, big cats, etc., so their WhatsApp message to me that they sold only reptiles rang hollow.
PEGAS has been monitoring online social media accounts for over three years, finding wildlife dealers who sell great apes captured in their forest habitats to the highest bidder. Dealers in Indonesia are amongst the most active of these ape traffickers, especially of the lesser apes (gibbons and siamangs).
The Facebook or Instagram posts of Indonesians are always in Bahasa Indonesia, the local language. PEGAS struggles with Google Translate to try to figure out what they are saying. One word, even in very short comments, keeps recurring when an animal is offered for sale: ‘rekber’, often with the word ‘wajib’. ‘Wajib’ is translated as ‘required’, but no translation could be found for ‘rekber’.
Here are many examples of both adverts and transaction instructions:
The fact that business PIN numbers are almost always given by dealers indicates that CITES Appendix I species – supposedly protected from commercial trade – are being trafficked with a veneer of legality.
PEGAS got lucky when a big Indonesian wildlife trafficker gave a short tutorial on what ‘rekber’ meant and how it operated. The word is an abbreviation of ‘rekoning bersama’, which means ‘joint account’. There are several private rekber services comprised of individuals or companies that have set up bank accounts to act as escrow services. They make money by charging a service fee for the financial transaction (e.g. RekBer CeperzBank, ceperzbank.com; RekBer IndoBank, http://www.rekberindobank.info; MangRekBer, http://www.mangrekber.com).
Here is how it works: the dealer and buyer agree on a price, for example, for two orangutan infants, let’s say Rupiah 140 million (~USD 10,000). They go to an online Rekber service. The service cannot release funds to the seller (i.e. dealer) until the buyer gives the thumbs up. Then, (1) the seller deposits the agreed price into the account, (2) the service informs the seller that the funds are there, (3) the dealer ships the orangutans, (4) the buyer informs the service that he has received what he paid for and (5) the service releases the funds to the dealer.
A schematic diagram showing how RekBer works
So Indonesian banks are facilitating illegal wildlife trade, albeit without direct knowledge of what is being traded. These services are not registered as banks, which means that they operate largely on trust between the buyer and seller and the service entity. Regulatory steps need to be taken to ensure that Rekber services are not used for trade in illegal commodities, or for illicit financial flows in the form of tax evasion and money laundering.
ELIZABETH CLAIRE ALBERTS wrote a wonderful story in The Dodo on Poco, one of Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary’s most famous residents. We reprint it here.
He might look different, but he’s the sweetest chimp — and loves to show off for visitors at his new sanctuary home.
It’s been more than two decades since Poco the chimpanzee was rescued — but anyone who visits Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, where Poco now lives, is reminded of where he came from. Poco spent nine horribly long years locked inside a tiny cage, which is now displayed on the sanctuary grounds.
Poco’s cage used to be suspended from a shop roof in Bujumbura, Burundi. He was kept there to attract customers, who would buy bananas and other snacks to feed him. While no one really knows how the shop owner got Poco in the first place, rescuers believe he was stolen from the wild when he was 3 years old.
The cage in which Poco spent nine long years |Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Poco was never let out of his metal prison, which forced him to live standing in an upright position. Not only would this have been uncomfortable, but it’s unnatural for a chimp to stand like this. Poco was also exposed to the sun and wind and rain.
In the early 1990s, things finally changed for Poco. Authorities managed to confiscate him from the shop owners, and transferred him to a rescue center run by the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in Burundi. After spending two years being rehabilitated at the JGI center, civil war broke out in Burundi — and Poco was transferred to the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya, which is run by Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
Poco at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Kenya |Glyn Edmunds/Ol Pejeta Conservancy
Poco’s time at the JGI rescue center had helped him move forward, but he still had a lot of emotional healing left to do when he arrived at Sweetwaters.
“When he got to Ol Pejeta it was emotional to see him still traumatized by hearing human voices,” Roxanne Mungai, communications and marketing administrator for Ol Pejeta Conservancy, told The Dodo.
But with time, Poco blossomed into a happy, healthy chimp. He loved the space and freedom to move around at the sanctuary, and he enjoyed meeting the other rescued chimps.
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
“He was introduced to a healthy population of chimpanzees who he observed and interacted with, and learnt to behave like a chimpanzee,” Mungai said. “It was amazing that despite his tough nine years in the cage, he [was] relatively healthy enough to be rehabilitated.”
“He enjoys fishing for honey and other treats at the enrichment structures put up at the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary,” Mungai added. “He is good friends with one of our older chimpanzees called Max.”
Poco still stands in an upright position, which is how he stood in his cage — and this is how visitors identify Poco from the other 36 chimps living at the sanctuary.
“Poco is always a favorite among our visitors and is identified by his unique ability to stand on his hind legs,” said Mungai, adding that Poco oftens stands this way to show off.
“He really likes people and will strut or throw sticks to get the attention of visitors,” a spokesperson for Ol Pejeta Conservancy wrote on Facebook. “Poco is one of our more gentle chimpanzees, and his bipedal swagger ensures he stands out from the crowd!”
While Poco was lucky to be rescued, wild chimps continue to face numerous threats— people are rapidly destroying the forests in which they live and poaching them for their meat. Wild chimps are also captured and sold into the entertainment industry or as pets.
The sanctuary keeps Poco’s cage out on display to this day to help spread awareness about the issues wild chimps face.
“They [visitors] get emotional hearing about his story and how he overcame being enslaved,” Mungai said. “We can only say he was strong and lucky.”
Ian Birrell of the Mail On Sunday has published an article on wildlife traffickers that were arrested in Nepal last October. One of them, a Pakistani named Jawaid Khan, has been in PEGAS’s crosshairs for several months. Khan has been smuggling chimps out of Kano, Nigeria, for years. PEGAS brought the story to Birrell’s attention and worked with him on it.
Ian Birrell, Mail On Sunday, 13 January, 2018
Traumatised animals are transported thousands of miles from their native lands
Chimps sold for up to £50,000 to wealthy collectors in Asia and the Middle East
Police have launched crack down on smugglers, arrested four men last week
RESCUED: The two baby chimps found hidden in a crate flown into Kathmandu
The crate flown in from Istanbul was filled with exotic creatures for collectors: tantalus and patas monkeys, golden and ring-necked pheasants, scores of parrots and several dozen pigeons.
The cargo quickly cleared customs and quarantine checks –thanks to a £4,400 bribe, say investigators – and was collected by a pair of local bird dealers in Kathmandu.
Little did they know they were being observed by a special squad of Nepalese police investigating a major international wildlife smuggling ring.
For also inside the crate – stuffed into a secretive middle section – were two infant chimpanzees, cowering in fear after being ripped from their slaughtered families in an African forest.
The traumatised animals had been transported thousands of miles from their native lands and were at risk of dying of suffocation. They could barely be detected hidden among the more humdrum birds and monkeys.
For these terrified chimps, barely a year old, suffering severe dehydration and shedding body weight inside their grim container, were prized assets in a barbaric global trade in great apes that is decimating the species.
Such creatures can be sold for up to £50,000 to wealthy collectors in Asia and the Middle East – but for each one seized from the wild, up to ten of our closest genetic cousins are killed by poachers to get the babies demanded by buyers.
The Central Bureau of Investigation team, acting on a tip-off from an informant, watched as the crate of creatures was taken to the nearby base of one of the dealers. There the dealers were joined by an Indian businessman and his assistant.
The police moved in and arrested the four men on suspicion of settling a clandestine deal to shift the animals to India, which shares open borders with Nepal.
Investigators suspect he could be a significant figure in the shady world of animal smuggling in which selfish crooks send baby apes in the most horrific conditions to collectors around the planet.
They wonder whether he might be the figure known as ‘Jawaid Chimpanzee’ in the secretive forums where illicit deals are made and amid the furtive chatter of traders.
Exposed: Jawaid Aslam Khan poses as an animal lover on Facebook but investigators say he is a key player in a cruel industry [photo provided by PEGAS]
Investigators suspect that Khan, whose social media sites show him routinely clutching baby chimpanzees and other rare animals such as white tiger cubs along with rapid-fire guns, has become one of the key players in a cruel industry.
‘This guy’s name would pop up again and again,’ said Doug Cress, chief executive of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and former head of a United Nations initiative to protect great apes.
Great apes are among the world’s most intelligent and protected animals, and their sale is banned except from certified breeding centres. They have become a highly profitable part of the illegal wildlife trade, with baby gorillas fetching up to £200,000.
Unlike trade in ivory or rhino horn, however, this involves fast transit of live animals. Often they are drugged and crammed into suitcases or containers; one baby chimp was even discovered in hand baggage scanned at Cairo airport.
The buyers are rich families in the Arabian Gulf and Asia who often keep these sensitive and sociable creatures in solitary cages, dressing them up in children’s clothes then dumping, killing or selling them when they grow into more aggressive teenagers.
SHAMEFUL: Rich buyers often dress up baby chimps [Photo provided by PEGAS]
Some have been taught to smoke, forced to wear make-up or simply beaten into performing the most banal tricks for their masters.
Many end up as props for tourist pictures, performing stunts such as boxing in animal shows or suffering miserable incarceration for decades in dodgy zoos. Some are driven mad, making them hard to rehabilitate if rescued.
There is also huge risk of spreading disease and parasites from animals evading quarantine checks. Experts fear scores of great apes are being smuggled each month, many dying in transit. ‘We are only just beginning to understand the scale of this,’ said Cress. ‘It is an incredibly brutal market in very fragile animals.’
This is why last year’s Nepal bust marks a significant breakthrough, since those usually caught are low-level poachers and traders on the ground in Africa, not the people suspected of running sophisticated global smuggling networks.
Nepalese investigators suspect Khan was also sending smuggled chimpanzees to Bangladesh, Thailand and several other countries.
Khan, currently held in Nepalese custody, is a familiar figure to those fighting the trade, such as Daniel Stiles, a Kenya-based conservationist who hunts smugglers. He has developed a network of informants and scans dark web sites and social media.
Stiles said Khan’s name cropped up in previous investigations – including one that resulted in the capture of traders in Ivory Coast last year – and in online discussions. ‘They talk about Jawaid Chimpanzee because he holds so many chimps,’ he said.
Bubbles: The chimp once owned by Michael Jackson seen painting
Khan has regularly posted pictures of baby chimps, sometimes in his arms, on his Facebook site as he travels the world. In one post, in May 2016, he replies to an enquiry asking if one of the infant apes can go to Pakistan, saying ‘why not’. Under international rules to protect wildlife, chimpanzees have the highest protection. Their export is tightly controlled. Chimps sent abroad must be bred in recognised centres of captivity and destined for non-commercial use, while all trades must be registered.
Stiles saw that Khan had posted a picture of two baby chimps in June last year on the site of a suspected Turkish animal smuggler with links to central Africa. He contacted Anil Jain – a biometrics expert and professor of computer science at Michigan State University who has been developing facial-recognition systems for wildlife – to help determine if these were the same animals seized in Kathmandu.
‘The scores indicate a high likelihood these are the same chimps,’ said Prof Jain last week.
Khan’s social media postings discovered by Stiles also show other pictures of endangered species –and guns such as a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch rifle, plus a clip of bullets. They reveal he makes frequent trips to Kano, Nigeria – a noted centre for wildlife smuggling where the shipment for Nepal originated – and has made multiple trips to Istanbul, the transit point. He even posted online a snap of an airline boarding pass between the two cities.
Other recent postings show giraffes and hippopotamuses packed into crates and lorries. There are images from Kano of wooden crates marked ‘Live Animals’ on a runway beside an aircraft – along with the message ‘congratulations boss’ from an employee of an African firm linked to the illicit trading of birds and bushmeat.
Many key smugglers run firms that also legitimately trade animals. This helps mask illicit activities, aided by corrupt officials who assist them to evade customs and conservation controls in return for chunky pay-offs.
A report being finalised by Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based think tank, will reveal the chimpanzee trade is worth tens of millions of dollars annually – although those capturing them earn as little as £36 for each animal.
‘This is a very well organised business,’ said Channing May, a policy analyst. ‘You need organisation and skills to transport these animals. Many traders operate front companies that manipulate documents to make movements look legitimate.’
The impact of their callous trade is catastrophic. It is thought that about 300,000 chimps survive in the wild, where they face threats from population growth, loss of habitat, conflict and poaching. They have been wiped out already in four countries.
Poachers usually wipe out entire families or social groups to grab one cute infant, selling any slaughtered creatures for bushmeat.
Adult chimpanzees are several times stronger than humans and can deliver savage bites. Some captives have their teeth pulled out, thumbs amputated to stop them climbing, or are hideously beaten with metal bars to control them.
One landmark UN study revealed that 1,800 apes were discovered in 23 countries while being trafficked between 2005 and 2011. But over the same period there were only 27 arrests in Africa and Asia – and some of those held were not prosecuted.
Yet there is a glimmer of good news.
The two Kathmandu chimps have become friends and are recovering well from their trauma in Nepal’s Central Zoo while experts await results of DNA testing to discover if they hail from Nigeria or another African nation for safe return to a sanctuary.
‘These guys may have a happy ending and hopefully live for another 60 years,’ said Mr Cress.
‘But sadly, thousands of other less fortunate chimps will die because of this vile trade.’
Will Chimpu and Champa, the names given to the chimpanzees, have a happy life? Nepal’s Central Zoo seems determined to keep them. The zoo is little better than the Abidjan Zoo where Nemley Junior, the chimp seized in the BBC sting, died. Ibrahima Traore and his brother Mohamed were out in six months after their arrest.
The Abraham Foundation, based in New York City, USA, kindly responded to a PEGAS request for funding to allow the project to continue operating into the new year, when hopefully PEGAS can obtain sufficient funds to continue its important work.
PEGAS has targeted a number of high profile wildlife traffickers that it will try to put out of business, and there are a number of captive great apes that are in dire need of a sanctuary. The work will carry on, thanks to Nancy Abraham and the Foundation. Thank you.
PEGAS, working in collaboration with Sam Wolson Media, has produced a short 4-minute video that explains why the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary exists, its history and connection with Dr. Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert and conservationist. Jane was kind enough to narrate the video herself. The residents of Sweetwaters are the victims of the illegal pet and zoo trade, as the video explains.
Manno arrived in Nairobi from Erbil, Iraq, the afternoon of 30th November 2016. His rescue and relocation took exactly one year from the time PEGAS heard of Manno to the time of his arrival, giving some indication of the difficulty in rescuing and relocating chimpanzees across national frontiers.
Manno was released from his 4-star quarantine room at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary on 31st March 2017. Many people were there to witness his transfer to the sleeping quarters of the New Group, where his introduction and integration process would begin. Manno remained in good spirits through it all and charmed all onlookers with his sweet disposition and amusing antics.
Manno could swing around to get exercise in his quarantine room
Dr. Edward Kariuki, KWS veterinarian on left, and Sweetwaters sanctuary staff carry Manno out of quarantine on 31st March
Manno’s transport crate, the same one used to ship him from Erbil, Iraq to Ol Pejeta, is loaded onto a small pickup truck.
Manno looks out with curiosity, “What’s going on?” he wonders.
A herd of elephants greets Manno’s transporters on the way to the New Group sleeping quarters.
The New Group sleeping quarters, where Manno will go through his introduction process.
No one was more charmed and happy to see Manno come out of quarantine than Spencer Sekyer, a Canadian ex-school teacher who brought Manno’s plight to the attention first of Jane Goodall, and then of Ol Pejeta Conservancy and PEGAS. Spencer flew all the way from Alberta, Canada, to see Manno’s release from quarantine and enjoy an emotional reunion with ‘the little guy’, as Spencer affectionately calls Manno.
Spencer greets Manno, whom he had not seen since early December.
Spencer first encountered Manno in late 2013 while volunteering at the Duhok Zoo, near Mosul in Iraqi Kurdistan. Manno probably arrived in Duhok about July 2013 from Syria and was the only chimpanzee in the zoo. The zoo owner dressed him up in children’s clothes and he generally had free reign to run around and interact with visitors. At night he slept in a small cage, except for the last few months when he was taken into the family home of a Syrian refugee zoo worker. Manno became part of the family.
Manno spent the last few months before he departed Duhok sleeping with Abdul Abde and family, a Syrian refugee who worked at the zoo.
The first step was to find Manno a foster mother, as she would constitute the foundation of a Sisterhood Protection Society, as it were, to shield Manno from aggressive males when eventually he would be introduced outdoors into the full group. The Sweetwaters team, led by Dr. Stephen Ngulu, Manager, and New Group supervisor David Mundia, first tried Akela, a docile senior female who had previously fostered Jane, one of five chimpanzees seized at the Nairobi airport in 2005.
Akela and Manno were first kept in cages with an empty cage in between, so that they could get used to seeing one another. Akela showed interest in Manno, but Manno showed only fear of Akela and of any other chimpanzee. He did not know what these strange, hairy creatures were, and their hooting and screeching frightened him, especially at evening feeding time when all the chimps were brought into the sleeping quarters. For the first four years of his life, Manno had only known human primates and he had worn clothes like them.
Akela
The males in particular eyed Manno with suspicion, but his young age and small size signalled that he posed little threat to the dominance hierarchy. The cage Manno lives in looks bleak, but he is there for his protection. If he were released into the group without a lengthy habituation process, the males would kill him instantly as a foreign intruder.
After a couple of weeks, Akela was put into the cage adjacent to Manno, as she showed no signs of aggression towards him, only of curiosity. Jane, who spends a lot of time with her foster mother, showed even more interest in Manno, so Stephen Ngulu, manager of Sweetwaters sanctuary, on the advice of David Mundia, added Jane to Akela’s cage. Manno continued, however, to reject their attempts to touch through the cage bars and he kept his distance.
The team felt confident enough that Akela posed no danger to Manno, so she was introduced to his cage in early May. Manno ran away from any attempts made by Akela for physical contact. Finally on 13th May, Akela was switched with the much younger Jane, who is about 13 years old. Again, however, Manno would evade any attempts at contact by running away and swinging around the cage bars.
The PEGAS manager just happened to be at Manno’s cage watching on 18th May when the breakthrough occurred. Jane was making repeated attempts to touch Manno and he kept scampering away.
Manno was sitting on the wood platform set against the wall and Jane was on the floor, looking up at Manno. She slowly raised her arms and placed her hands on the platform, just at Manno’s feet. He watched. She gently touched his feet, then reached up and touched Manno’s head. Manno did not run away, but took Jane’s hand and went into a crouching roll off the platform, falling right on top of her. They started playing!
Jane ran off with Manno chasing her. They spent a good part of the rest of the day chasing each other and play wrestling. Now Manno and Jane are like brother and sister.
Manno and Jane chilling together (Photo: David Mundia)
Stephen and David then reintroduced Akela to the cage and Manno accepted her. In late May they introduced Bahati, which means ‘luck’ in Kiswahili, so Manno now has his own little family. Bahati is a female from Burundi who arrived at Sweetwaters in 1996 at the same time as Akela. They were both victims of the illegal pet trade, so share something in common with Manno and Jane.
Manno with his new family – Akela, Jane and Bahati. (Photo: David Mundia)
For the first time in his life Manno is being groomed, a fundamental aspect of social life. Manno is learning to become a chimpanzee.
For the first time in his life Manno is being groomed, a fundamental aspect of social life. Manno is learning to become a chimpanzee. (Photo: David Mundia)
I asked David Mundia on 31st May how Manno was doing. David replied, “He is the happiest chimp ever.”
Wildlife conservationists and law enforcement officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the use of the Internet in marketing and trading protected wildlife species. Before the Internet, live wild animals, plants and their products were normally traded in physical market places, auction houses or shops. Sellers and buyers congregated physically to trade, which set certain limits on the numbers of traders who could participate and the quantity of products that could be sold and shipped around the world.
With the arrival of the Internet, thousands of traders can communicate instantaneously with one another in cyber-space and sell millions of items at the touch of a key. Traders can use e-commerce websites and social media platforms, such as Instagram, WeChat, Twitter and Facebook, to advertise wildlife with photographs showing a multitude of items. They all have private messaging functions between users, which can allow illegal trading to take place anonymously. WhatsApp, Snapchat and other private communication applications can also be used to negotiate illegal trades out of sight of law enforcement.
The Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS) has been investigating online trading of great apes for about two years now, collaborating closely with the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Cheetahs and great apes share the unfortunate distinction of being popular exotic pets of the wealthy in the Middle East, former Soviet Union countries and elsewhere. The exotic pet and rare species industries make extensive use of cyber-space to conduct trade. Critically endangered CITES Appendix I species such as great apes and cheetahs can attract very high prices from buyers for unscrupulous traffickers, and they have organized suppliers in source countries, creating sophisticated wildlife trafficking networks.
One of the objectives of the PEGAS project is to coordinate actions of organizations and individuals who are engaged in similar work to stop great ape trafficking. With this in mind, PEGAS organized an Illegal Wildlife Cyber-trade Information Exchange Workshop, which was held 21-22 March at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.
Those accepting invitations to attend were Tania McCrea-Steele, the Global Wildlife Cybercrime Project Lead of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW); Pauline Verheij, Senior Legal Investigator, Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC); Sarah Stoner, Senior Wildlife Crime Analyst, WJC; and Patricia Tricorache, Assistant Director for Strategic Communications and Illegal Wildlife Trade, Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF). Joss Wright, Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and Co-Director of the Oxford University Cybersecurity Doctoral Training Centre provided information electronically on illegal wildlife trade that he is investigating on the Dark Net.
Workshop participants visiting Sudan, the last northern white male rhino on Earth
The workshop focused on reviewing the strategies and tactics used by the participating NGO’s to detect and disrupt wildlife cybercriminals with the aim of increasing our impact by adopting a coordinated and consistent approach to tackling the problem across the NGO community. We presented our respective objectives, methodologies, outputs and outcomes and discussed ways of improving our effectiveness.
Each participant gave one or more PowerPoint presentations summarizing their objectives, methodologies, outputs and outcomes.
IFAW was one of the first to recognize the threat that online sales posed to wildlife. Tania McCrea-Steele explained how up to now IFAW has focused on e-commerce websites. In a recent background paper prepared for the OECD entitled ‘E-commerce and Wildlife Cybercrime: Effective policies and practices to stem the growth of illicit trade’, Tania summarized IFAW’s actions in this growing area. In 2004 IFAW launched an investigation called Caught in the Web that documented massive online marketing of live endangered and protected species and their parts including elephants, rhinos, sea turtles, tigers, lions, falcons, primates, parrots and serval cats. Three years later, another IFAW investigation, Bidding for Extinction, focused on eBay sites in the U.K., U.S., Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Germany, France, and China.
IFAW’s investigation in 2008 (Killing with Keystrokes) found 7,122 online advertisements for CITES Appendix I and II species over a period of just six weeks across eight countries. In response to the report’s findings which highlighted the large amount of ivory available for sale over e-commerce sites, eBay introduced a global ban on the sale of ivory across their marketplaces.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t have a cyber crimes unit, but IFAW’s findings inspired it to launch undercover stings in 2011 and 2012 called respectively Operation Cyberwild and Operation Wild Web, an example of using outputs successfully. USFWS charged 154 perpetrators in Operation Wild Web and officials seized a huge variety of illegal wildlife products.
In 2013, IFAW found that ads for endangered wildlife products available for sale in Australia, mostly on eBay, had increased 266 percent since 2008. In 2014 IFAW looked at 280 online markets across 16 countries (Wanted Dead or Alive). In just six weeks it found ads for 33,006 endangered animals and their parts. They found 56 live great apes offered for sale in 40 online ads, plus 8 other ads offering multiple species, including great apes.
Russia and Ukraine posted the most great ape ads (38 total). In 2015 IFAW released Elephant vs Mouse, exposing the illegal ivory trade on Craig’s List, a popular P2P e-commerce website, leading to Craig’s List pledging to monitor wildlife ads more vigorously and delist those that were advertising illegal items.
A growing number of online technology companies are banning the trade in endangered species on their sites. In 2008 Chinese online marketplace Tabao banned species included in China’s Wildlife Protection Law, while eBay’s ban on the sale of ivory across all their platforms came into effect in January 2009. In September 2009 Alibaba, a huge Chinese e-commerce site that provides online trade for individual consumers as well as businesses, banned all online postings of elephant ivory, rhino horn, shark fins and the parts and derivatives of sea turtles, tigers, bears and other protected wild animal and plant species.
More recently Etsy banned the sale of ivory and all other products made from endangered species in July 2013 and Chinese giant Tencent, that owns WeChat and the QQ instant messenger launched “Tencent for the Planet. Say No to Illegal Wildlife Trade” in May 2015. TRAFFIC, WWF and IFAW have been working with online companies to develop a united front against online wildlife crime across the sector. This has resulted in seven companies, including eBay, Etsy, Gumtree, Microsoft, Pinterest, Tencent and Yahoo! adopting a new standardised policy framework in August 2016.
Example of illegal ivory for sale on a Chinese social media site
Enforcement efforts are more challenging to track as prosecution data is not collated; however there have been a number of international and national operations, cross border investigations and successful prosecutions.
INTERPOL’s Project WEB (2013) was the first international enforcement operation investigating the scale and nature of online ivory trade in Europe. The operation found 660 advertisements of ivory items conservatively valued at approximately EUR 1,450,000 for sale during a two-week period on 61 Internet auction sites in nine European countries. Operation Cobra 3, an international law enforcement operation tackling the illegal trade in endangered species which took place in spring 2015, led to over 300 seizures of animals, plants and derivatives in the UK, the majority of which had been sold online.
Most recently Operation Thunderbird, a global wildlife crime operation held over a period of three weeks in January and February 2017, ensured that investigating online marketplaces and social media was an integrated part of the operation. In addition to these operations there have been multiple successful prosecutions.
Online wildlife trafficking has been elevated to the largest international conservation forum, CITES, through the adoption of multiple Decisions and the inclusion of specific text on this issue in a Resolution. This was addressed most recently with Decision 17.92 Combatting Wildlife Cyber-crime which was adopted at CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP) 17 in 2016. The Decision seeks to capture changes to legislation, establish best practise models, develop enforcement guidelines, and engage with online technology companies. In addition there is an obligation to report back at CITES Standing Committees and create a Resolution on the issue for CoP18.
IFAW has developed a standardised methodology for researching online wildlife trade which they have shared with interested enforcement agencies, NGO’s and academics. In addition, IFAW has developed a procedure for identifying scam ads on e-commerce websites. Posting fake adverts for wildlife has become a small industry in its own right. The scammers collect a deposit and shipping costs from the customer for nonexistent animals or products and are never heard from again.
The Wildlife Justice Commission was launched in March 2015 as a non-governmental charity registered in the Netherlands and is based in The Hague. WJC’s mission is to help disrupt transnational, organised wildlife crime by exposing criminal networks and the corruption that enables them to flourish by convincing – or if need be pressuring – governments to enforce the law. Pauline Verheij explained how one of WJC’s first investigations, dubbed ‘Operation Phoenix’, focused on the northern Viet Nam village of Nhi Khe, which is a hub of international wildlife product illegal trade, including ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts sold in the village, plus a much larger range and quantity of products sold online, including bear, pangolin, sea turtle and helmeted hornbill parts.
After gathering evidence for a year using undercover investigator visits to Nhi Khe and monitoring of online social media sites of traders based there (mainly WeChat and Facebook), WJC mapped out a network 51 perpetrators involved in selling over USD 53 million worth of illegal wildlife products. They contacted the Vietnamese government in January 2016 and provided a ‘Map of Facts’ report on their findings, requesting them to take appropriate law enforcement action. The government initially ignored the report.
The value of the illegal wildlife seen for sale by WJC
To apply further pressure, WJC held a public hearing in November 2016 in which the evidence of illegal wildlife trade was presented to the public. An Accountability Panel made up of distinguished legal personalities reviewed WJC’s information and described it as objective and reliable. They determined that Nhi Khe is, and continues to be, a major hub for wildlife crime in protected species. The government made a few token arrests, but has not yet taken the necessary steps to shut down illegal wildlife trade in Nhi Khe and neighbouring villages.
Sarah Stoner described how WJC uses iBase to store, process and analyse data. Both the social media account and a traded species product are recorded entities, provided with an ID code and a screen grab of each ad. The analysis produced links that are relationships between the entities. The analysis showed clearly who were the biggest dealers and determined the quantities of each product sold and the estimated value. Relationships between the various actors were also ascertained. The study concluded:
WeChat was the most popular platform and was used by one third of traders and WJC detected at least 8,300 images of illegal wildlife offered for sale on WeChat
WJC found that Vietnamese traders are targeting Chinese customers via WeChat
The volume and scale of products offered for sale on WeChat by a relatively small number of individuals was unprecedented and was occurring in an organised manner
Emerging Trend: WJC identified Chinese customers are using WeChat Wallet, particularly WeTransfer, to transfer funds to their Vietnamese suppliers
Facebook was used by a minimum of eight subjects
WJC detected a minimum of 200 offences under Article 190 of Viet Nam’s Penal Code
The estimated minimum value of products found for sale on Facebook equated to USD 445,356 along with a strong indication of trade occurring on a commercial scale
31 of the 51 dealers (61%) used either WeChat or Facebook to trade illegally; some used both; WhatsApp was also used to communicate.
The illegal items illegally sold in Nhi Khe added up to hundreds of animal deaths
The Cheetah Conservation Fund was founded in 1990 and is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Namibia, with operations in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and partner organizations in several other nations. Patricia Tricorache explained how she began recording cases of cheetah IWT in late 2005 mainly in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somaliland/Somalia, Djibouti and northern Kenya), which is the source area for most of the cheetahs going into the pet trade. She also records the illegal trade in parts (skins, bones, etc.) reported from anywhere. CCF uses Excel spreadsheets to both record and analyze the data. Since 2007, CCF has observed 641 live cheetahs in trade and found 406 cases of confiscated live cheetahs. Add to this at least 119 cheetahs represented in traded or confiscated parts totals 1,166 cheetahs taken from the wild in 10 years. CCF estimates that five cubs die for every one that makes it to the pet trade. With the total population in Africa estimated at only 7,100, the loss of so many cheetahs a year in illegal trade is seriously affecting their survival in the wild.
As alarming as the above numbers are, they do not represent the totality of the trade due to the difficulties in obtaining data. CCF’s field associates estimate that 300 cheetahs per year are being smuggled out of Africa for the pet trade. Consequently, in an effort to understand the trade better and obtain a broader picture, in 2014 , Patricia began searching the social media sites for cheetah dealers and mapping relationships between them. She continues to monitor them closely, having recorded well over 1,000 cheetahs offered for sale on the Net since 2012. This figure, which is much higher than the data collected through reports, indicates that the trade may indeed be closer to 300 cubs per year.
CCF collaborates with a number of partners, including IFAW and PEGAS, and its data served to support the inclusion of IWT of cheetahs on the CITES 16th Conference of the Parties agenda. Since then, CCF and has worked within the CITES process to raise awareness about cheetah IWT, which resulted in Decisions 17.124-17.130 being adopted at the CITES 17th Conference of the Parties in 2016. The Decisions call for the creation of a forum on the CITES website where users can exchange information on cheetah IWT and the development of a CITES cheetah trade resource kit that compiles relevant information and tools to assist in implementing the Convention with regard to trade in cheetahs, and addresses inter alia: identification of live cheetahs and parts and derivatives thereof; advice on procedures to be followed in case of seizures including handling, DNA sampling, guidance on the immediate and long-term disposal of live animals (e.g. decision trees based on relevant CITES Resolutions, veterinary care, contact details of experts or potential rescue centres, advice on procedures, reporting on disposal activities); and lists of suitable housing facilities for long-term placement of live cheetahs; and other relevant materials.
CCF also engages in demand reduction through awareness creation materials and campaigns and is in the process of building a cheetah genetics database at its laboratory in Namibia to support forensic investigations.
CCF carries out demand reduction activities
A bit of relatively good news was communicated by Joss Wright of the Oxford Internet Institute, who reported that he has found very little IWT on the Dark Net. It would appear that there is little incentive for traffickers to go to the trouble of establishing themselves on the Dark Net, where transactions have to be made using bitcoin, a virtual currency. Dealing in IWT on the open Net has proven to be low risk, low cost and very efficient. Unless law enforcement becomes much more effective against Internet dealers, it is unlikely that the Dark Net will be used for wildlife trade.
PEGAS made presentations during the workshop outlining its objectives, the methodology used in finding and tracking traffickers and the results achieved thus far, explained in the photos below.
During the workshop participants agreed that we are working towards the following outcomes:
• Disrupt wildlife cybercrime through enforcement actions including arrests, seizures and prosecutions
• Raise awareness with governments at an international and national level on the scale and severity of wildlife cybercrime
• Raise awareness with buyers on the negative impact of illegal wildlife trade on both the conservation and welfare of the animals being traded
• Effect policy and legislative trade at the international (CITES) and national level to specifically target wildlife cybercrime (i.e. adding offering for sale as an offense where this doesn’t exist)
• Ensure online tech companies (particularly social media platforms) pro-actively implement their wildlife trade policies
The participants decided to work together to explore the possibility of developing collaborative projects that would further the goal of reducing IWT, focusing initially on great apes and cheetahs.
The results of the workshop greatly exceeded the expectations that PEGAS initially had of its usefulness, and feedback from the participants has been very positive. We all learned a great deal, and PEGAS has a lot of work ahead to upgrade the way in which data are recorded and processed in its online IWT monitoring work.
Not only was the workshop technically and conceptually valuable, it was also very enjoyable, being held on the beautiful Ol Pejeta Conservancy where the wildlife that we are all working to conserve was seen in great abundance.
PEGAS represented Ol Pejeta Conservancy at the Walk for Animals in Dubai’s Zabeel Park on 10 February, 2017. The purpose of the Walk was to create awareness about the abuse that domestic and exotic pets can suffer by uncaring owners.
The PEGAS Project Manager set up a table with reading materials on Ol Pejeta Conservancy and its Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, along with souvenir objects, in order to attract visitors from the Walk. PEGAS explained to visitors about the wild animal conservation objectives of Ol Pejeta and why there was a need for a chimpanzee sanctuary.
PEGAS set up a table
There was a surprising lack of awareness in the public PEGAS encountered about the problem of illegal trade of wild exotic species for use in the pet trade. PEGAS realizes that much more needs to be done to inform residents of the UAE about illegal exotic animal imports to the country and the negative impacts that this has on wildlife conservation, particularly with great apes.
Mahin Bahrami on left and Zara Hovelsas on right of the Middle East Animal Foundation, a PEGAS partner in the UAE
Renowned primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall visited Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary on 14th July, accompanied by the Director General of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Mr. Kitili Mbathi. When asked if she would be cold riding in the back of an open safari vehicle on the chilly morning, with characteristic pragmatism she replied, “I suppose I shall just have to be.”
Dr. Jane Goodall and Mr. Kitili Mbathi, Director General of Kenya Wildlife Service, arrive on Ol Pejeta Conservancy on a plane chartered by PEGAS
In July 1960, at the age of 26, Jane Goodall travelled from England to what is now Tanzania and courageously entered the extraordinary world of wild chimpanzees. She was equipped with nothing more than a notebook and a pair of binoculars. But with her resolute patience and optimism, she won the trust of these initially wary creatures, and she managed to open a window into their mysterious lives, finding surprising similarities with our own. The public was fascinated and remains so to this day. Her 1971 book, In the Shadow of Man, was an international best-seller.
Today, Jane’s work revolves around inspiring action on behalf of endangered species, particularly chimpanzees, and encouraging people to do their part to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment we all share.
The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), founded in 1977, works to protect the famous chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in Tanzania, where she first began her research 56 years ago, but also supports community-based conservation throughout East Africa and the Congo Basin, engaging with communities to win long-term conservation impact.
The Institute’s community-centred conservation programs in Africa include sustainable development projects that engage local people as true partners. These programmes began around Gombe in 1994, but they have since been replicated in other parts of the continent. Likewise, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, which Jane started with a group of Tanzania students in 1991, is today the Institute’s global environmental and humanitarian youth program for young people from preschool through university with nearly 150,000 members in more than 130 countries.
Jane came to Nanyuki, where Ol Pejeta Conservancy is located, to speak at Mount Kenya Safari Club to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Kenya Roots & Shoots programme. PEGAS thought it offered an ideal opportunity for her to return to the Sweetwaters sanctuary, which was created in 1993 largely through her instigation, in cooperation with KWS and Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The aim is to provide lifelong refuge to orphaned and abused chimpanzees. The first chimpanzees to arrive were individuals that Jane had rescued from horrible conditions of captivity in Burundi.
Jane looks at a photograph of herself and Uruhara, a chimpanzee that she rescued in Burundi more than 20 years ago, as they share a hoot.
After obtaining enthusiastic agreement from Ol Pejeta for Jane’s visit, PEGAS contacted Alpana Patel, JGI’s representative in Kenya (also a PEGAS Steering Committee member) for her views on the visit. Would the 81-year old world traveller have the stamina and desire to combine a day visit to Sweetwaters with an evening talk and fund-raiser at Mount Kenya Safari Club? After checking with Jane’s people in the USA, yes was the resounding answer.
Jane and Kitili Mbathi arrived from Nairobi on the PEGAS charter flight right on time, and off we drove across Ol Pejeta Conservancy to the Sweetwaters sanctuary, where the CEO Richard Vigne and other staff were waiting to welcome them.
Richard Vigne, CEO of Ol Pejeta, welcomes Jane and Kitili to the Sweetwaters sanctuary
Jane poses with the Sweetwaters staff. Stephen Ngulu, veterinarian and Sweetwaters Manager on the left and Joseph Maiyo, head Caretaker, on the far right
Jane advises Annick Mitchell, Ol Pejeta’s Tourism Manager, about how best to explain the mock termite mound. Dr. Goodall first revealed to the world that chimpanzees are also tool-users, using twigs to catch termites to eat
The first order of business was for Jane to open the new Education Centre at Sweetwaters, which provides informative graphics that instruct visitors about the threats to chimpanzee survival, including the capture of infants for the lucrative pet and entertainment industries.
Jane opens the Education Centre with a celebratory chimpanzee hoot
After a presentation on infant capture and trafficking, Jane asked, “How many chimpanzees are killed during these infant captures?”
I replied, “It’s estimated that 9 to 10 are killed for every infant captured.”
With a slight smile Jane remarked, “I always hear that number, but chimps are intelligent. When the shooting starts they just run away.”
She made her point, and I think some actual field research is in order on great ape poaching and capture.
For the next two hours we visited both chimpanzee groups, which live in large, fenced enclosures vegetated by natural savanna bushland on opposite sides of the Uaso Nyiro River. The river acts as a natural barrier to separate the two groups, as chimpanzees cannot swim.
Jane was anxious to see Uruhara, a chimpanzee she had rescued from Burundi more than 20 years ago (see the photograph above). When we found him and Jane offered him a banana she remarked, “I wouldn’t have recognized him, he’s aged so much.” After a moment she turned to me with a twinkle in her eye and added, “I think I’ve done a bit better.” I had to laugh and agree with her – she certainly had.
Jane meets up with Uruhara after more than 20 years. “I wouldn’t have recognized him, he’s aged so much.”
Encouraged by the many media journalists who had been attracted by Jane’s visit, she began expertly tossing bananas through the fence wires. Both to protect the chimpanzees from predators – there are about 70 lions and numerous leopards on Ol Pejeta – and to prevent their escape, the 250 acre sanctuary is enclosed by an electrified fence.
Jane expertly tosses bananas through the fence wires
Jane requested some privacy from the media and other observers because she wanted a moment alone with the Sweetwaters caretakers. Some of these dedicated and professional staff have been with Sweetwaters since the beginning and Jane wanted to hear from them how the chimpanzees had been faring, what problems there might be, to hear stories of the individual chimpanzees that she had known from many years ago and to share her thoughts and observations with them. To take time out to do this demonstrates the thoughtfulness and care for others that this extraordinary woman has.
Jane shares a private moment with the Sweetwaters sanctuary staff to talk about the chimpanzees
Richard Vigne presented Jane with an honorary chimpanzee adoption kit
We then proceeded to visit the last three Northern White Rhinos left on the planet. Kitili Mbathi had yet to see them, so was particularly interested in finding out more about their situation. Attempts are being made to breed new offspring, but the single male, Sudan, is 43 and beyond mating capabilities – his age is equivalent to over 90 years for a human.
Kitili Mbathi meets Sudan, the last male Northern White rhino on Earth
I was astounded to see Jane Goodall appear, she had walked the 300 metres or so from Morani’s restaurant, where we were to have lunch, under the hot sun to meet Sudan. The woman’s curiosity and energy know no bounds.
Jane also meets Sudan, and gives him an affectionate rub
During lunch at Morani’s PEGAS had the opportunity to discuss the project and what we are trying to do and hope to achieve. Jane and Kitili were both very supportive and hopefully we can cooperate closely to achieve results in various planned actions in the near future.
It was an honour and great pleasure to host two such positive, outspoken and yet modest advocates for wildlife conservation at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
On 5th and 9th July a Kenyan television station, Nation TV (NTV), featured a 45-minute segment on its NTV Wild programme that toured Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Several staff were interviewed along with the PEGAS Project Manager, who explained to viewers the tragic problem of illegal great ape trade. The video of the programme can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMQqLe5CSOs.
A story published on 16 March 2016 in the Doha News reported that a man was apprehended trying to sell a baby chimpanzee by a patrol from the Department of Environmental Protection. No details were given, but if a patrol saw it the man must have been trying to sell it outdoors. A person commenting on the story said that he had once seen it at the Wakra roundabout in Doha.
A photograph accompanying the story showed a miserable baby chimpanzee on a car seat wearing a child’s pajamas. The pajamas looked familiar.
One of the online traffickers PEGAS has been monitoring, located in Qatar, posted a video on 18 February of the baby chimpanzee that was later seized. The pajamas are identical with those in the newspaper report and the size and facial characteristics of the infant in the photograph and video are the same.
The baby chimpanzee seized in Doha in mid March 2016
This is the seized chimpanzee. This video post from 29 February demonstrates that a dealer was offering the chimpanzee for sale online for 75,000 rials, about USD 20,600.
The commentary displayed on the video post shows that the man was offering the chimpanzee for sale for 75,000 Qatar rials (about USD 20,600). It looked like he had a buyer, as one commentator asked that the dealer call him at a number provided. Apparently, the deal was not concluded. He also advertised it for sale on a Kuwaiti traffickers post on 29 February.
The dealer in Doha posted that he had a chimpanzee for sale on an Instagram page of a trafficker based in Kuwait.
Another infant chimpanzee was seized in November last year in Doha and the trafficker was arrested, though no further information is currently available on what has happened to the accused or the chimpanzee. The article said that the chimpanzee was sent to the Doha Zoo, but the zoo closed in 2012. Some animals are being moved to the Al Khor Park, and others were supposed to be moved to shelters in Rawdat Al Faras farm, but the fate of the two infant chimpanzees is unknown.
Another infant chimpanzee seized in Doha in November 2015. (Photo: The Peninsula newspaper)
There were three other adult chimps already living in Doha Zoo (Rita, Timmy and Tina) and what has become of them is also unknown. PEGAS is making enquiries.
Rita, Timmy and Tina, three chimpanzees about 15 years old in Doha Zoo. (Photo: Hilda Tresz)
Qatar is currently constructing a new zoo and safari park that is supposed to be the biggest in the region. The new zoo will cover 75 hectares, seven times the size of the current facility, and it will be divided into several regions representing the natural and climatic features of three continents, with a planned 3,000 animals. There will be a combination of drive and walk through exhibits and other facilities. It is expected to open at the end of 2017.
Schema of the new 75-hectare Doha Zoo planned to hold 3,000 animals. How many will be great apes and where will they come from?
This joins the safari park type expansions of the Dubai and Al Ain zoos in the UAE. Thousands of wild animals are pouring into the Gulf region to supply these new developments. Conservationists concerned about illegal wildlife trade need to monitor the sourcing of these animals carefully.
A government spokesman said that the new Doha Zoo “will be an entertainment outlet for the country’s residents and tourists”. PEGAS hopes that the “entertainment” does not take after what is seen in some places in East Asia, where great ape infants are used as photo props with visitors and juveniles are trained to perform in front of fee-paying audiences. Will this be the fate of the two chimpanzee infants?
PEGAS has written to the Qatari CITES office enquiring about the possibility of relocating the chimpanzees to Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, but has yet to receive a response. There is precedence. In 2001 two baby chimpanzees smuggled in to Qatar with a shipment of birds from Nigeria were sent to Chimfunshi sanctuary in Zambia.
If you would like to help, please write to:
Mr. Fawaz Al-Sowaidi
Director of Protected Areas and Wildlife Department
Head of CITES Management Authority
P.O. Box 7634
Doha, QATAR
Email: fasowaidi@moe.gov.qa
Politely enquire about the fate of the two seized chimpanzee infants and respectfully suggest that they should be sent to an appropriate facility that can offer secure and nurturing care in the company of other chimpanzees. Ol Pejeta Conservancy is one of the few wildlife establishments in the world that can offer to cover all transport costs, through the PEGAS project, and lifetime care for chimpanzees in need of a home.
Richard Vigne CEO, Ol Pejeta Conservancy Stephen Ngulu Deputy Manager, Ol Pejeta Conservancy Daniel Stiles Project Manager, PEGAS Tom Butynski Director of Research, Sustainability Centre Eastern Africa Alpana Patel Jane Goodall Institute, Kenya Yvonne de Jong Eastern Africa Primate Diversity and Conservation Program, Kenya
Project to End Great Ape Slavery (PEGAS) 
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