Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks are well known within the UK and Europe for their high standards of animal welfare and captive breeding success. 2009 was yet another successful year for new births across both parks, and there were also several new additions to the collection. The parks have the largest collection of critically endangered Western Lowland gorillas and Eastern black rhinoceros in the world. There were 4 gorilla births in 2009 (bringing the total number of births to 129) and on Christmas day we celebrated the birth of an Eastern Black rhinoceros, bringing our total birth count to 27. Other notable births include 9 clouded leopards, 3 Javan gibbons, 5 rusty spotted cats, 1 Heck’s macaque (the first captive birth outside of their native homeland) and 3 brown hyena pups (our parks are the only UK collection currently holding this species and the first to breed them)

Some new species were also added to the parks’ collections; including Northern Chinese Leopards, ring-tailed lemurs, belted ruffed lemurs and brown hyena. In addition, Howletts and Port Lympne have taken over the captive breeding recommendations (studbooks) for three species; clouded leopards, bush dogs and Scottish wild cats.

Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Park provide a safe environment that encourages rare species to breed in captivity, and the parks also support the in-situ conservation of a number of critically endangered species, working closely with the respective countries governments and local communities to safeguard the future of these species.

The primate section at Howletts has been having a busy time recently, with a number of important births over the last few months.

One of the most recent significant successes has been the birth of a Javan gibbon in October. This birth is of particular note because this infant’s sire ‘Ujung’ was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago. At first his condition was managed through strict control of his diet and tablets, but when his condition worsened he started needing daily insulin injections. For Ujung to service, he would therefore need to be willing to accept daily injections from his keepers, which required a lot of positive reinforcement training. After much effort, Ujung is now presenting both arms for his daily injection and is doing fantastically well and we hope to see a steady flow of youngsters swinging around his enclosure for many more years to come.

TAF initiated a wildlife law enforcement project called ‘PALF’ in Congo a little over a year ago. The project was created in response to a lack of enforcement of national wildlife laws that was providing no real deterrent to stem the trafficking of wildlife. Since the project began, TAF has been implicated in the capture and prosecution of a number of people involved in this illegal activity. They have arrested dealers trading in gorillas body parts, leopard and drill skins and – most significantly – ivory.

Five major ivory traffickers were recently apprehended – three from Kinshasa, another from Makoua, and a dealer implicated in the seizure of 100 kilos of ivory on the outskirts of Brazzaville. The latter is regarded as one of the most important traffickers in the Mbomo area (western Republic of Congo), and has admitted to the slaughter of numerous elephants as well as trading in ivory. In the Republic of Congo, the maximum sentence that can be enforced for trafficking is five years, but dealers are often so well connected that they are usually released after serving just months, or even weeks, of their sentence. One of the aims of the wildlife law enforcement project is to make sure sentences are being properly enforced.

In June 2009, the PALF project was one of a handful of field conservation projects selected by the UNEP ‘Year of the Gorilla’ for a targeted fundraising campaign: http://gorilla.wildlifedirect.org/ and has benefited from support by LAGA (Last Great Ape Organisation), the UN Environmental Program, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Congolese Ministry of Economic Forestry.

Baby Western Lowland Gorilla Louna celebrated his 1st birthday at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent today with a specially-made organic cake.

Baby Louna on FouFou's at Louna's 1st Birthday Party

It was a double celebration for Louna, his family and the park as the baby gorilla was only recently re-introduced to his family after spending time in intensive care with severe gastroenteritis. Although vital for his recovery, Louna’s 8-day removal from the social group meant that he risked rejection on his return. Happily, Louna (pictured with his mother FouFou) has now been welcomed back into the group.

Amos Courage is Overseas Director for The Aspinall Foundation.

In May I travelled to Congo with a group of visitors that included my mother Sally Aspinall and Chairman of the Aspinall Foundation James Osborne.

We started the trip by seeing the youngest group of five orphan gorillas, who are still being looked after by carers in the nursery area to the south of the reserve. The oldest and dominant gorilla in the group is four-year-old female Tanga, who is presently nearly double the size of the next eldest Kingoue (who is just over 3 years old). When looking at a youngster like little Kingoue, it never ceases to amaze me that, when fully grown, an adult silverback will weigh more than 200kg. The latest orphan to arrive was Loketo, who clung to his carer’s leg as we approached the group in the forest. The sex ratio of the group is male heavy (2 females and 3 males) so the reintroduction of this group will be difficult as these new male arrivals might be considered a threat by the elder reintroduced groups within the reserve.

Next we all headed to the new reserve headquarters positioned opposite Abio Island where the silverback Yambo (also known as Sid) now lives alone. Sid is looking very well despite a chronically infected tooth, he performed a series of rushes towards our party who were watching him from the safety of a large dugout canoe a couple of metres from the shore. Sid taught us a quick lesson in Gorilla manners by getting a little close for comfort, so we decided to move back to the other bank to watch him finish his dinner.

Lastly we visited Makoua and his reintroduced group within the reserve. Makoua looks magnificent – along with several of his females and his baby Teke. A week after we visited the group a second baby was born to the dominant female Djembo.

It was a wonderful trip that was finished off with an exhibition football match between two villages held in our honour, as well as a touching performance by local school children featuring talking trees, gorillas and their battle with charcoal producers (a serious threat to the forest within the reserve).

The Aspinall Foundation has reintroduced 51 Gorillas back into the wild so far, and they continually strive to protect the Western Lowland Gorilla. The Aspinall Foundation also extends its protection to nearly one million acres of wilderness at the same time.

The three gorillas that arrived in Gabon from Howletts in July 2008 are all doing well. Kouki and Oudiki are now completely at home in the forest and even Tiya is climbing and playing. We were worried that she might have been damaged at birth because she was so late in walking, but it seems that life in the forest has had a remarkable effect on her.

Helene and Oudiki

The three have been joined by a wild born female called Lekoko who had undergone an extensive quarantine because the poor little girl had a horrible skin disease which she probably caught when she was captured by poachers. Lekoko seems sweet natured but a real fighter, not at all bowed by the terrible experience she must have been through.

Unfortunately she has an already well bonded group into which she has to assimilate and Kouki and Oudiki make her know her place.

Our PPG project (Projet Protection des Gorilles’) in Congo has recently embarked on an initiative (named PALF) to co-ordinate efforts (along with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Congo’s Ministry of Economic Forestry) to decrease the level of wildlife trafficking in-country.

Following on from investigations co-ordinated by PALF in Brazzaville, a wildlife trafficker trading in panther pelts was identified in the capital’s main hotel. He was arrested on the 8th May with the assistance of the local Department of Economic Forestry and police.  

There were two operations carried out on the 12th May, which led to the arrest of an ivory dealer and a wildlife trafficker selling chimpanzees (making this the second arrest of a chimpanzee trafficker since December 2008). In November 2008, a young orphan gorilla was also seized from a police officer that was attempting to sell it. The gorilla infant, named Loketo, was around 18 months old at the time of confiscation and was suffering minor injuries from the chain that was securing him. Loketo was taken into care by ‘Projet Protection des Gorilles’ (www.ppg-congo.org), the world’s only successful gorilla rehabilitation and reintroduction project. He has now joined a group of 5 other orphans who will be reintroduced into a protected reserve within the next few years. With the support of the three-year old male Kingoue, Loketo continues to develop well and is enjoying his new discoveries in the forests of the Lésio-Louna Reserve.

In addition those efforts being made to decrease the level of wildlife trafficking in the region, the other main focus of the project is to encourage high-profile media attention regarding any trafficking-related arrests, as well as the subsequent sentences delivered to the people involved. With regards to the latter, a trafficker dealing in chimpanzees was sentenced to a year in prison in March 2009, becoming the first individual to be prosecuted for wildlife trafficking in the Republic of Congo. This event received a great deal of publicity – which the project is continuing to develop on over time. Over the course of May 2009, 53 media items were produced and publicised in the Republic of Congo via written media, radio, internet and television. Thanks to this intensive media publicity, the Congolese people have gained an increased awareness about wildlife protection laws and the risks associated with the trafficking of protected wildlife or products derived from them – such as live great apes, panther skins or ivory.