The Big Business in Africa’s Baby Great Apes
Great apes in Africa are threatened by habitat destruction and poaching for bushmeat. Now there’s a new and growing threat: their babies are kidnapped and trafficked to supply a global for pets and zoos.
“Over the past two decades there has been a spike in demand for exotic animals as pets, linked to the increasing capture of mainly young exotic animals in the wild, putting even more pressure on the survival of endangered species,” according to a new report by Daniel Stiles for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
“Great apes,” writes Stiles, “other primates, big cats and a few other exotic animals top the list of things to be shown off on social media by owners seeking to attract attention and status.”
Most of the African apes – chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas – end up in China, Pakistan, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates, as pets or attractions in private zoos. Stiles says an eye-popping ten thousand new zoos have sprung up in China alone in the past decade, nearly doubling its previous number.
The illegal trade is extremely lucrative, at least at one end of the supply chain. A poacher in the forest might sell a baby chimp to a rural middleman for $25, who then sells to an urban go-between for $135, who then unloads the chimp for $500 to an exporter, who might fetch $15,000 from the ultimate buyer. Baby gorillas are bringing in over half a million dollars from the “zoos” and private collectors.
Like the illegal drug trade, with that kind of money involved there is no shortage of corrupt officials and bad cops to keep the supply chain moving. We need to attack the problem on the demand side, but that’s not going to be easy when the demand is coming from people who are as rich as they are shameless.
Stiles wants a concerted effort from NGOs, conservation groups, and others to end this terrible practice. “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.”
Photo credit: Alain Lushimba / GI-TOC
