5
In 2013 Aspinall reintroduced an entire family of zoo-born gorillas into their natural habitat, the world's first conservationist to do so, a silverback named Djala, his five wives and four infants: a project no other zoo would even consider. Sending the family of 10 gorillas to Africa was a massive undertaking: they had to be sedated and couriered [by DHL!].
The gorillas were flown to Gabon and taken by raft to an area of dense forest -- about a million acres that Aspinall had bought and turned into a national park to protect animals like the western lowland gorillas whose numbers keep dwindling due to habitat destruction and poaching. To keep them safe, the gorillas were taken at first to an island in the forest to acclimatise. Damian's staff continued to feed them and give them medicines like malaria pills. [This wasn't his first time sending gorillas here. He had already sent 12 from his zoo, but they were all babies who hadn't adapted yet to the zoo.]
A number of experts were sceptical of the project’s success, critical even. Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, based in Zoo Atlanta, home to the largest collection of gorillas in North America said “returning a handful of zoo animals can't begin to counter the vast numbers that are lost every year, so Damian's money would be better spent saving gorillas already in the wild. Maybe it makes him feel good. He has a relationship with these animals. And he wants to do well for them. And he thinks that taking them back to Africa will be doing that. But it's not conservation.” Others have called his work a vanity project.
The gorilla family spent about a year on their island haven. Damian's idea was to complete a bridge from the island only when he felt they could fend for themselves, for just over the other side of that bridge was the true wilderness. Tragically a month after the gorillas crossed the bridge, Damian's team found all five adult females dead, as well as baby Akou. An outcome so many of Damian's critics predicted.
Damian was shocked but undeterred. His best guess is that a wild male silverback attacked the family, ironically a huge male gorilla that Aspinall reintroduced to the area many years previously and was known to be a loner, a bit of an ‘odd-ball’. Nobody considered him to be a threat however.
Some of the family were killed on the spot, others dying from injury, infections or stress. Aspinall called it "a hell of a setback" but said he was determined to send more gorillas into the wild. He points out that the survival rates among the animals the Foundation has released in Africa are remarkably good: over 80 per cent of the gorillas still alive and flourishing, 22 who travelled from his Parks in Kent.
[Continued in Part 6]
5
In 2013 Aspinall reintroduced an entire family of zoo-born gorillas into their natural habitat, the world's first conservationist to do so, a silverback named Djala, his five wives and four infants: a project no other zoo would even consider. Sending the family of 10 gorillas to Africa was a massive undertaking: they had to be sedated and couriered [by DHL!].
The gorillas were flown to Gabon and taken by raft to an area of dense forest -- about a million acres that Aspinall had bought and turned into a national park to protect animals like the western lowland gorillas whose numbers keep dwindling due to habitat destruction and poaching. To keep them safe, the gorillas were taken at first to an island in the forest to acclimatise. Damian's staff continued to feed them and give them medicines like malaria pills. [This wasn't his first time sending gorillas here. He had already sent 12 from his zoo, but they were all babies who hadn't adapted yet to the zoo.]
A number of experts were sceptical of the project’s success, critical even. Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, based in Zoo Atlanta, home to the largest collection of gorillas in North America said “returning a handful of zoo animals can't begin to counter the vast numbers that are lost every year, so Damian's money would be better spent saving gorillas already in the wild. Maybe it makes him feel good. He has a relationship with these animals. And he wants to do well for them. And he thinks that taking them back to Africa will be doing that. But it's not conservation.” Others have called his work a vanity project.
The gorilla family spent about a year on their island haven. Damian's idea was to complete a bridge from the island only when he felt they could fend for themselves, for just over the other side of that bridge was the true wilderness. Tragically a month after the gorillas crossed the bridge, Damian's team found all five adult females dead, as well as baby Akou. An outcome so many of Damian's critics predicted.
Damian was shocked but undeterred. His best guess is that a wild male silverback attacked the family, ironically a huge male gorilla that Aspinall reintroduced to the area many years previously and was known to be a loner, a bit of an ‘odd-ball’. Nobody considered him to be a threat however.
Some of the family were killed on the spot, others dying from injury, infections or stress. Aspinall called it "a hell of a setback" but said he was determined to send more gorillas into the wild. He points out that the survival rates among the animals the Foundation has released in Africa are remarkably good: over 80 per cent of the gorillas still alive and flourishing, 22 who travelled from his Parks in Kent.
[Continued in Part 6]