Bobby: the gorilla on the wrong side of the law

 The western lowland gorilla was smuggled from Africa to Italy in the 1980s. As taxidermy, he is part of a new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland

 

Henry Nicholls

Monday 28 November 2016 07.02 GMT

Name: Bobby
Species: Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
Dates: 1983-2008
Claim to fame: Much-loved zoo animal
Where now: National Museum of Scotland

In 1994, magistrates from the Italian province of Ancona found the manager of a local circus guilty of importing a gorilla into the country. Bobby (variously also known as Bongo, Bongo III and Bongo Junior) had been captured as a baby in Equatorial Guinea more than a decade earlier and is thought to have been brought to Italy soon afterwards as “a chimpanzee”.

Either way – gorilla or chimpanzee – the transportation of Bobby was in direct contravention of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement signed in Washington D.C. in 1973 and eventually ratified by Italy in 1979. CITES binds parties to pass appropriate national legislation to allow its implementation, but it took the Italian Parliament until 1992 to do this (Legge 7 Febbraio 1992, n. 150, if you must know). It was only then that the Italian authorities were in a position “to penalize trade in, or possession of, such specimens,” and “to provide the confiscation or return to the State of export of such specimens.” 

“The Italian Parliament took thirteen years, one month and 22 days to translate into Italian the Latin expression nulla poena sine lege,” quipped professor of international law Tullio Scovazzi in the European Environmental Law Review. 

Bobby was confiscated from the circus, but instead of being repatriated to Equatorial Guinea ended up under the custodianship of the Giardino Zoologico di Roma. There, he lived alongside Romana, a female gorilla of a similar age that had been born in captivity in 1980. According to a history of gorillas at Rome Zoo, Bobby’s new situation resulted in “a considerable improvement both in the physical aspect and the behavioural profile.” When the “ape house” finally closed in 2000 and became a restaurant, Bobby and Romana moved to Bristol Zoo. 

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Gaps in data place thousands of illegally traded wild animals at risk, say researchers

Date: September 26, 2016

Source: University of Oxford

The fate of over 64,000 live wild animals officially reported to have been confiscated by enforcement agencies remains untraceable, according to a new report released by the University of Oxford Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and World Animal Protection.

Between 2010 and 2014, more than 64,000 live wild animals were officially reported as seized by wildlife enforcement agencies according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) trade database.

However, researchers warn that these animals are likely to be only a fraction of actual seizures, as the study found only one in three (30%) of countries that are 'Party to CITES' provided any information. Two out of three countries did not report any live wildlife seizures, despite poaching of endangered species to supply the illicit global wildlife trade being estimated to be worth between $8-10 billion per year.

The figures have prompted calls for better reporting of seizures and what happens to confiscated live wild animals.

The study, published in the journal Nature Conservation, also highlights that the ultimate fate of seized live wild animals is unknown. Once animals have been confiscated, national authorities must decide whether to keep them in captivity, return them to the wild or euthanise them. CITES provides guidelines to aid this decision-making based on the conservation status and welfare needs of the animals.

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New safeguards agreed for world's most trafficked mammal

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, Johannesburg

28 September 2016

A little known species driven to the edge of extinction by poaching has gained extra protection at the Cites meeting in South Africa.

Pangolins are slow moving, nocturnal creatures found across Asia and Africa but over a million have been taken from the wild in the last decade.

The trade is being driven principally by demand for their scales, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Now the Cites meeting has agreed to ban all trade in eight species of Pangolin.
 

Scales of destruction
As the world's only mammal covered in scales, these species are sometimes known as scaly anteaters. The creatures have very long, sticky tongues. These come in very handy when searching for ants, their favourite food

However these scales, which the animal uses for protection, are one of the key reasons for their demise.

In traditional Chinese medicine they are dried and roasted and used for a variety of ailments including excessive nervousness, hysterical crying, palsy and to aid lactation.

As well as the scales, the meat of the Pangolin is eaten as bush meat in many parts of Africa and in China it has become something of a delicacy.

The level of illegal trade is astonishing. Between January and September this year, authorities seized more than 18,000 tonnes of Pangolin scales across 19 countries.

The majority of these scales came from African pangolins in Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana. Experts estimate that each kilogramme of scales requires the killing of three or four animals. It is believed that pangolins make up around 20% of all illegal trade in species.


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UK makes another mockery of CITES trade agreement

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Kevin Heath

The day after a court laughed at the seriousness of trading in endangered tiger parts by issuing a community service order to a tiger parts trader the police in the UK have joined in the mockery by giving a caution to an elephant feet trader.

A 47-year-old man from the Waltham Forest area has been given a police caution for trying to auction some stuffed elephant feet on Ebay. The police have not released the name and address of the offender.

The feet are now with the Wildlife Crime Unit and will be used as part of the unit’s educational learning program.

The decision to not even charge and prosecute the trader together with yesterday’s sentence demonstrates that officials in the UK have no interest in protecting endangered species and that authorities are just making a mockery of CITES regulations that are trying to protect endangered species from extinction.

The evidence is becoming clearer by the day – the British government is happy to take flights around the world telling other countries how they need to be boosting their efforts to combat the illegal trade in wildlife while at the same time laughing at offenders and letting them off at home in the UK.

It is quite clear that the next government will have a major take to undertake by getting the legal system in the UK to recognise that illegal wildlife trading is an industry that is not just putting some of the most iconic wildlife at risk but is also funding terrorism and murder around the world.

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165 critically endangered geckos seized at Heathrow

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Kevin Heath

Border Force officers have intercepted an attempt to import 165 critically endangered turquoise dwarf geckos from Tanzania. The geckos was found last month within a larger consignment containing other species such as chameleons, scorpions and frogs.

Turquoise dwarf geckos are critically endangered and are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). They are currently only found in two locations in Tanzania.

After the seizure the case was passed to the National Crime Agency’s Border Policing Command. After investigations they arrested a man in Swindon on Friday 20th March. The 41-year-old is currently on police bail as investigations continue.

Grant Miller, head of the Border Force CITES team, said, “This was a highly significant seizure. This particular species of gecko is incredibly rare and there are strict laws against its capture in Tanzania.

“The movement of endangered species is part of an illicit and often cruel trade that Border Force, together with other agencies, is rigorously determined to stop.”

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Three countries receive CITES trade bans for failing elephants

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Kevin Heath

Three countries have been placed on a trade ban list for failing to meet their obligations to protect elephants and deal with the rampant illegal ivory trade. Notices were issued today by CITES recommending that signatories no longer permit trade with Nigeria, Laos and DR Congo.

During the July 2014 meeting of CITES tackling the ivory trade and elephant poaching became a pressing concern and a number of countries were listed as not doing enough to halt the trade. 11 countries were ordered to produce and submit national ivory action plans.

These plans had to be submitted to CITES by October 2014. Despite reminders being issued to Nigeria, Laos and DR Congo in January and February this year and the deadline being extended until March 14th no plans have been submitted.

During an inter-sessional meeting in January this year it was decided that those countries failing to meet the 14th March deadline should face trade bans on all CITES species.

The CITES Secretariat have now invoked those sanctions and issued formal notice to all CITES members to enforce trade bans with the three countries.

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Kimberley Process is no model for legal rhino horn trade

Kevin Heath / 3 hours ago

South Africa is almost certain to try to push through a legal rhino horn trade at the CITES meeting in 2016. Those in support of a legal trade say a highly regulated system could raise money for rhino protection and slash poaching rates. Often those is support of a legal rhino horn trade point to the Kimberley Process of tackling ‘blood diamonds’.

A report from a Panel of Experts at the end of last month on the conflict in Central African Republic demonstrates that the Kimberley Process is not as effective as thought and is pretty weak when it comes to trying to end the trade in conflict or blood diamonds.

While the Panel of Experts were examining the human rights abuses and the mass killings currently underway in the Central African Republic (CAR) hidden in the text is an interesting revelation.

Despite all diamonds from the Central African Republic being banned from the marketplace by the Kimberley Process last year since that ban over US$24 million of CAR diamonds have entered the global marketplace after being smuggled out of the country.

This means that one of the most highly regulated markets in the world is unable to stop 140,000 carats of diamonds from one country entering the marketplace. It is a clear indication that any rhino horn trade model that uses the Kimberley Process as an example of effective controlled trade is flawed.

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