Gorillas released onto island in Republic of Congo

March 2007. Five male gorillas have now been moved onto their very own bachelor island in the Republic of Congo by The John Aspinall Foundation.

The 60-acre home was created on an island within the Lefini Reserve, an area of protected habitat managed by The John Aspinall Foundation in collaboration with the Congolese government.

 

The solitary males - Bhanga, Kola, Titi, Sid and Rupert - are unable to live among the established gorilla family groups at the Reserve due to a lack of female mates, causing them to become aggressive and roam off of the Reserve into nearby villages. This eventually led to their return to smaller enclosures until an alternative could be found.

Four of the five gorillas were successfully transferred on to the island where they joined Bhanga, the first to be moved in July 2006. In a massive two-day operation, each gorilla was sedated by specialist vets, loaded into a crate and taken on a two hour journey across savannah and through jungle to the banks of the river. The crates were then placed in large dug-out canoes and taken across the water to four different release sites around the island. When the crates were finally opened, all four gorillas bounded off the canoes and into the forest. Minutes later, Rupert could be seen up in a tree surveying his new home, while Titi sat munching fruit.

 

It is not known how the gorillas will react to each other on the island. They are aggressive males who have not been in physical contact together for many years. Though it is possible that they will fight, the island is large enough to provide them with enough space.

Amos Courage, Overseas Project Director of The John Aspinall Foundation says: ‘We are delighted that after months of careful planning and preparation, the transfer of these four males has been such a great success.

‘We did not want to keep these males in the enclosure for the rest of their lives and after exploring a number of options, the creation of the island seemed the only way to return them to their natural habitat.

 

‘All five gorillas are being monitored to see how they get on in their new home and so far so good. We hope that they’ll be happy on the island and are pleased that for the first time in years, they are roaming free.’

The gorillas are Western Lowland gorillas, orphans of the bushmeat trade who were rescued as infants by The John Aspinall Foundation’s Projet Protection des Gorilles (PPG), based in Congo and neighbouring Gabon. The project rehabilitates the orphans and eventually reintroduces them back into the Reserve. Since the project began in Congo in 1996, 50 gorillas have been reintroduced, including six from Howletts Wild Animal Park, Kent, which is managed by the Foundation.

The John Aspinall Foundation is the only conservation charity reintroducing gorillas into the wild in Africa. It also works with the governments of Congo and Gabon, and with local communities, to educate people about gorillas and to stop the bushmeat trade - which is threatening the future of this endangered animal. Some 50,000 Western Lowland gorillas exist today, but if numbers continue to decline at the present rate, they will be extinct by 2020.