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CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
Gorillas once caught by wildlife traffickers are set free in historic reintroduction
Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park. Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what is being hailed as the largest translocation of the subspecies ever. Conservationists hope that its success will not only prevent the local extinction of an isolated population, but provide essential knowledge needed to protect the critically endangered apes in the future. The females – named Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala, and aged between 10 and 21 years old – were rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as babies and taken to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) where they were rehabilitated over a long period of time, learning to forage and socialize as they would in the wild. Deemed ready for release, last fall they were flown to Mount Tshiaberimu – or 'Mountain of the Spirits' – a 1,700-meter (5,577-foot) peak in the northern region of the national park, where they were kept in a fenced enclosure before being released into the wild. The gorilla monitoring team, who expected the transition to take anywhere between several months to several years, were astounded when, in less than two months, they appeared ready to leave the enclosure. 'It happened much quicker than we all anticipated,' says Katie Fawcett, executive and science director for GRACE Gorillas, the NGO leading the rewilding process alongside Virunga National Park and local communities. This was partly down to the allure of a handsome wild silverback called Mwasa, who approached the fence of the enclosure day after day, beating his arms on the ground and grunting to catch the females' attention. It worked: they responded to his calls and even chose to abandon their indoor dens to sleep closer to him along the fence line. Watching on carefully, the monitoring team decided that it was the natural time to let the females join him. 'We really pride ourselves on every decision being gorilla led,' Fawcett tells CNN. 'After three days of attention directed at the magnificent Mwasa … the decision was made: 'let's go for it.' The fence was cut so they could come out.' Since then, to the team's surprise and delight, the four females have quickly settled into life in the wild, adjusting to the colder climate on the mountain's steep hills and a new diet of bamboo shoots and other native plants. Related article Meet the conservationist saving gorillas in Uganda's 'impenetrable forest' While rangers continue to monitor the gorillas' health, collecting non-invasive biological samples and conducting visual assessments, so far the gorillas have shown no clinical signs of stress – in fact, they are looking 'amazing,' says Fawcett, with thick, shiny coats and full bellies. The biggest excitement came in the new year, when Mwasa was spotted mating with Ndjingala, a 16-year-old female, for the first time. Since then, the other three have also been seen mating with him, according to Fawcett. As gorillas have a similar gestation period to humans, the team are eagerly counting down the days to September, but she says they are cautiously optimistic: 'It's probably going to take some time as the female gorillas were on contraception while they were in the sanctuary at GRACE.' A birth would be a huge ray of hope for the whole species. The eastern lowland gorilla, or Grauer's gorilla, is found in the lowland tropical rainforest of eastern DRC and is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies – all of which are endangered. While there have been successful translocations of western lowland gorillas in the past, eastern gorilla releases have had a very poor survival rate, with individuals dying or disappearing within weeks of release, or being so young that they have been unable to survive without a lactating mother. 'What's different about this reintroduction project is not only that it is the largest and we're putting in four females into this group, but also that the decision was made early on not to just throw a baby back into the group, but to rehabilitate it over a long period of time and make sure the gorilla has the social skills and critical survival skills,' says Fawcett. '(We were) trying to mimic that natural behavior of having adult females join a wild group.' The project was also intended to provide a critical genetic boost to the small and isolated population of eight gorillas living on Mount Tshiaberimu. Previous scientific modelling found this population to be non-viable, with some estimating that it would go extinct between 20 and 50 years, unless new females were introduced. 'The tiny gorilla population was doomed but could now be saved by this intervention,' Liz Williamson, a professor at the University of Stirling in the UK specializing in the conservation, ecology and behavior of gorillas, who was not part of the project, said in an email. She added that the situation facing Grauer's gorillas across eastern DRC is 'dire,' but the translocation could bring multiple conservation benefits. Related article Rhinos went extinct in Uganda 40 years ago. Now, a private ranch is home to almost 50 Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park and a Belgian prince, commended the initiative in a press release: 'This is a huge milestone in efforts to bolster the eastern lowland gorilla population and we are delighted that the gorillas are successfully adapting to the wild.' However, there are huge challenges working within Virunga National Park, which has been the center of armed conflict for decades. Over 200 rangers have been killed in the park since it was created in 1925, and the recent resurgence of the M23 rebel group has escalated matters, with attacks on rangers becoming increasingly common. Mount Tshiaberimu is located within the troubled region. 'Working in this area is not easy,' says Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, DRC director for GRACE Gorillas. 'The main thing strategically is to put the community in the middle of everything we do: we recruit caregivers, we recruit educators who are trained at GRACE … and they feel that responsibility of taking care of wildlife.' Brought up in the area himself, he recalls when gorillas were widespread and as a child, he would listen to them calling or beating their chests. 'We grew up in the same habitat, sharing the same resource,' he says. 'Gorillas are our identity, our totem, they are an important source of pride in this area.' Related article The world's smallest elephants are facing extinction. One woman has a plan to save them Yet, as human populations grow, pressures on gorilla habitat are inevitable, with forest being cleared for agriculture and firewood. During times of conflict, with communities in extreme need, these threats are heightened as some resort to hunting gorillas for their meat. The reintroduction is a huge breakthrough, but it is only the start. 'The real key for gorilla conservation success in this region is forest protection,' says Fawcett. 'We're super excited by this result and how it can help to inform these critically endangered populations, but we need to stop populations reaching that point.'
CNN
4 days ago
- General
- CNN
Gorillas once caught by wildlife traffickers are set free in historic reintroduction
Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park. Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what is being hailed as the largest translocation of the subspecies ever. Conservationists hope that its success will not only prevent the local extinction of an isolated population, but provide essential knowledge needed to protect the critically endangered apes in the future. The females – named Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala, and aged between 10 and 21 years old – were rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as babies and taken to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) where they were rehabilitated over a long period of time, learning to forage and socialize as they would in the wild. Deemed ready for release, last fall they were flown to Mount Tshiaberimu – or 'Mountain of the Spirits' – a 1,700-meter (5,577-foot) peak in the northern region of the national park, where they were kept in a fenced enclosure before being released into the wild. The gorilla monitoring team, who expected the transition to take anywhere between several months to several years, were astounded when, in less than two months, they appeared ready to leave the enclosure. 'It happened much quicker than we all anticipated,' says Katie Fawcett, executive and science director for GRACE Gorillas, the NGO leading the rewilding process alongside Virunga National Park and local communities. This was partly down to the allure of a handsome wild silverback called Mwasa, who approached the fence of the enclosure day after day, beating his arms on the ground and grunting to catch the females' attention. It worked: they responded to his calls and even chose to abandon their indoor dens to sleep closer to him along the fence line. Watching on carefully, the monitoring team decided that it was the natural time to let the females join him. 'We really pride ourselves on every decision being gorilla led,' Fawcett tells CNN. 'After three days of attention directed at the magnificent Mwasa … the decision was made: 'let's go for it.' The fence was cut so they could come out.' Since then, to the team's surprise and delight, the four females have quickly settled into life in the wild, adjusting to the colder climate on the mountain's steep hills and a new diet of bamboo shoots and other native plants. Related article Meet the conservationist saving gorillas in Uganda's 'impenetrable forest' While rangers continue to monitor the gorillas' health, collecting non-invasive biological samples and conducting visual assessments, so far the gorillas have shown no clinical signs of stress – in fact, they are looking 'amazing,' says Fawcett, with thick, shiny coats and full bellies. The biggest excitement came in the new year, when Mwasa was spotted mating with Ndjingala, a 16-year-old female, for the first time. Since then, the other three have also been seen mating with him, according to Fawcett. As gorillas have a similar gestation period to humans, the team are eagerly counting down the days to September, but she says they are cautiously optimistic: 'It's probably going to take some time as the female gorillas were on contraception while they were in the sanctuary at GRACE.' A birth would be a huge ray of hope for the whole species. The eastern lowland gorilla, or Grauer's gorilla, is found in the lowland tropical rainforest of eastern DRC and is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies – all of which are endangered. While there have been successful translocations of western lowland gorillas in the past, eastern gorilla releases have had a very poor survival rate, with individuals dying or disappearing within weeks of release, or being so young that they have been unable to survive without a lactating mother. 'What's different about this reintroduction project is not only that it is the largest and we're putting in four females into this group, but also that the decision was made early on not to just throw a baby back into the group, but to rehabilitate it over a long period of time and make sure the gorilla has the social skills and critical survival skills,' says Fawcett. '(We were) trying to mimic that natural behavior of having adult females join a wild group.' The project was also intended to provide a critical genetic boost to the small and isolated population of eight gorillas living on Mount Tshiaberimu. Previous scientific modelling found this population to be non-viable, with some estimating that it would go extinct between 20 and 50 years, unless new females were introduced. 'The tiny gorilla population was doomed but could now be saved by this intervention,' Liz Williamson, a professor at the University of Stirling in the UK specializing in the conservation, ecology and behavior of gorillas, who was not part of the project, said in an email. She added that the situation facing Grauer's gorillas across eastern DRC is 'dire,' but the translocation could bring multiple conservation benefits. Related article Rhinos went extinct in Uganda 40 years ago. Now, a private ranch is home to almost 50 Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park and a Belgian prince, commended the initiative in a press release: 'This is a huge milestone in efforts to bolster the eastern lowland gorilla population and we are delighted that the gorillas are successfully adapting to the wild.' However, there are huge challenges working within Virunga National Park, which has been the center of armed conflict for decades. Over 200 rangers have been killed in the park since it was created in 1925, and the recent resurgence of the M23 rebel group has escalated matters, with attacks on rangers becoming increasingly common. Mount Tshiaberimu is located within the troubled region. 'Working in this area is not easy,' says Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, DRC director for GRACE Gorillas. 'The main thing strategically is to put the community in the middle of everything we do: we recruit caregivers, we recruit educators who are trained at GRACE … and they feel that responsibility of taking care of wildlife.' Brought up in the area himself, he recalls when gorillas were widespread and as a child, he would listen to them calling or beating their chests. 'We grew up in the same habitat, sharing the same resource,' he says. 'Gorillas are our identity, our totem, they are an important source of pride in this area.' Related article The world's smallest elephants are facing extinction. One woman has a plan to save them Yet, as human populations grow, pressures on gorilla habitat are inevitable, with forest being cleared for agriculture and firewood. During times of conflict, with communities in extreme need, these threats are heightened as some resort to hunting gorillas for their meat. The reintroduction is a huge breakthrough, but it is only the start. 'The real key for gorilla conservation success in this region is forest protection,' says Fawcett. 'We're super excited by this result and how it can help to inform these critically endangered populations, but we need to stop populations reaching that point.'
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
42 cases of animal smuggling at Singapore borders in 2024
SINGAPORE: Kittens, puppies and an Asian Arowana fish were among 42 animal smuggling cases detected in 2024, according to the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA). In comparison, there were 35 such cases in 2023, said both agencies in a statement on Tuesday (May 27). Eight cases of animal smuggling were also caught at the borders between January and April of this year EXOTIC WILDLIFE SMUGGLING ON THE RISE A routine luggage inspection at Singapore's Changi Airport on Aug 27 last year found 16 live birds stuffed into pipes and crammed into a duffel bag without food and water. Three of the birds died. While the bulk of the cases involved pet animals like birds, kittens, puppies and fish, 18 cases involved the illegal importation of live wildlife, an increase of 80 per cent from 2023, said both NParks and ICA. More than 240 animals were also seized from over 30 premises in Singapore in the last two years, according to the two agencies. Ms Xie Ren Hui, director of wildlife trade at NParks, said the agency has detected more exotic wildlife cases, with the use of technology such as mobile X-ray scanning machines, together with partners like the ICA and Singapore Customs at the checkpoints. "We also see … a number of (these exotic species) that are not approved pets to be kept at home. And the reason why such exotics are being kept as pets could be for novelty reasons," she added. Ms Xie said that one of the reasons for an increase in demand for exotic wildlife as pets may include novelty, due to the small list of approved pets to be kept at home. She added that authorities have also caught exotic wildlife or animals transiting through Singapore, noting one case where 58 endangered Indian star tortoises en route to Indonesia from India were seized here. ILLEGAL TRANSIT OF WILDLIFE Authorities have confiscated many large shipments of illegal wildlife transiting Singapore in the past few years. In April 2019, Singapore authorities seized the largest-ever haul of pangolin scales when they were on the way from Nigeria to Vietnam. The case involved close to 13 tonnes of scales, worth more than S$52 million (US$40 million). In October 2022, authorities seized 20 pieces of rhinoceros horns, in one of the largest such hauls in Singapore. They were en route from South Africa to Laos, with a wholesale value of more than S$1.2 million. Another record was broken in July that year, when 8.8 tonnes of elephant ivory were intercepted similarly on their way to Vietnam. The ivory, worth more than S$17 million, was estimated to have come from nearly 300 African elephants. Efforts to clamp down on such illegal trade of endangered wildlife have ramped up in recent years. The Endangered Species (Import and Export) (Amendment) Bill was changed in 2022 to strengthen enforcement against those who trade endangered species covered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES is an international agreement that aims to ensure wildlife species are not threatened to extinction by trade. Despite strict laws and enforcement, animal smuggling is still ongoing worldwide. WHY DOES ANIMAL SMUGGLING THRIVE Associate Professor Adrian Loo, deputy director at the National University of Singapore's Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, told CNA's Singapore Tonight programme that animal smuggling continues to thrive due to demand. He added that established transport infrastructure at transshipment ports also make it easier for smugglers to operate, and while authorities do their best to detect such activities, some slip through. When asked about regions that are especially vulnerable now, Assoc Prof Loo said that just as there are smugglers flowing into Singapore and within Southeast Asia, there are many others headed in the opposite direction. He cited cases of songbirds from Southeast Asia being smuggled into Europe. He said that social media and online marketplaces have amplified the demand for such wildlife and generated interest for new entrants into the illegal trade of these animals. He noted the ease of buying smuggled animals on social media platforms meant that consumers may or may not be aware of the legality of such pets. '(It) becomes quite easy for them to … buy it without even a single thought. And it looks so interesting, a sugar glider or hedgehog,' said Assoc Prof Loo, pointing out that education is important to help reduce illegal demand for exotic pets. 'I think people lack the awareness that if you are buying things from the wild, you are creating a demand for them to be poached from the wild. And then they'll be extinct.' EDUCATING YOUTHS TO TACKLE THE ISSUE Assoc Prof Loo said battling transnational crimes such as illegal wildlife trading also requires countries to work together. He added that it is also important to educate youths about the illegal trade. He noted that the CITES Global Youth Network (CGYN) platform, which allows youths to study and learn about the challenges facing the wildlife trade, is a step in the right direction. Singapore is hosting the inaugural five-day (CGYN) Summit, a forum for more than 70 youths from 53 countries, to combat illegal wildlife trade. Minister of State for National Development Alvin Tan also emphasised the importance of international collaboration during the opening ceremony of the CGYN Summit on Tuesday. "We don't just work collaboratively within the Singapore government and our agencies, but we also work with our international partners, sharing findings that can help tackle poaching hot spots more effectively and curb illegal wildlife trade at source," said Mr Tan. Ms Steffi Tan, co-founder of CGYN, said the network provides a chance for youths worldwide to share diverse perspectives of the illegal wildlife trade and learn from each other. 'Illegal wildlife trade is an international issue, it is not one country's burden to bear alone. There is supply and there is also demand and everything else that needs to be tackled in between, like the transit countries,' she said.
CNA
6 days ago
- General
- CNA
42 cases of illegal animal smuggling detected in 2024, up from 35 in 2023: NParks, ICA
Forty-two cases of animal smuggling were detected in 2024, a 20 per cent increase from 2023. The National Parks Board and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority say 18 of them involved illegally importing live wildlife. This is up from 10 cases in 2023. Associate Professor Adrian Loo, Deputy Director at the NUS Centre for Climate-based Solutions, talks about why it is so tough to curtail animal smuggling. He also reveals where demand for live illegal imports come from.
The Independent
08-05-2025
- The Independent
More than 100 vultures die after eating elephant poisoned by poachers
A devastating incident in South Africa's Kruger National Park has left at least 123 vultures dead after they ate a poisoned elephant carcass. Poachers are suspected of lacing the elephant with agricultural pesticides, leading to the mass poisoning. In a desperate effort to mitigate the damage, another 83 vultures were rescued from the site and transported for treatment, either by helicopter or a specialized vulture ambulance. These birds are currently recovering. This incident represents one of the worst mass vulture poisonings in the park's history, according to SANParks, the national parks agency. Vultures play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems by efficiently disposing of animal carcasses. This vital cleanup work, however, makes them particularly susceptible to poisoning, either directly targeted by poachers or as unintended victims of poisoned carcasses intended for other animals. The sheer number of vultures that typically feed on a single carcass contributes to the devastating impact of such poisonings. The elephant had been poisoned by poachers in a remote part of the huge park to harvest its body parts for the illegal wildlife trade, SANParks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust said. Many vulture species are endangered in Africa because of poisoning and other threats to them. The affected birds in Kruger included Cape vultures, endangered lappet-faced vultures and critically-endangered white-backed and hooded vultures. 'This horrific incident is part of a broader crisis unfolding across southern Africa: the escalating use of poisons in wildlife poaching,' SANParks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust said in their joint statement. 'Poachers increasingly use agricultural toxins to target high-value species.' Map: Kruger National Park The Kruger National Park covers approximately 20,000 square kilometers (7,722 square miles) and is nearly twice the size of small countries like Jamaica and Qatar. Rangers say they face a daily battle to guard species like rhinos, elephants and lions from poachers. Vulture conservation organization Vulpro, which was not involved in the rescue, said the poisoning came at the start of the breeding season and many other birds that weren't found at the site could still be affected.
