Smuggled Gorillas are not yet returned to Cameroon

Years of dispute over the gorillas' return to Cameroon from Malaysia — lobbied for by, among others, the Born Free Foundation and the Last Great Ape Organisation ended in dissapointment because of red tape. The 'Taiping Four' western lowland gorillas were sent to the Pretoria zoo in South Africa in 2004 at the request of Malaysia, which confiscated them in 2002 after discovering they had been illegally imported to its Taiping zoo from Nigeria. Some groups have argued that the animals will be safer in South Africa than Cameroon, where they will be protected from poachers who might hunt them for meat.