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Baby Western lowland gorilla named Zeytin, eats a peanut at the Polenezkoy Zoo in Istanbul, on September 3, 2025. (Photo: AFP)<\/p>\n
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October 25, 2025<\/p>\n
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LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) \u2014 Turkey\u2019s decision to keep an African baby gorilla rescued from trafficking defies logic, a Nigerian conservation NGO that was preparing to receive it for onward repatriation, said Saturday.<\/p>\n
The primate was five months old when he was discovered at Istanbul airport in a wooden crate just before Christmas en route from Nigeria to Thailand and taken in a zoo in the hills outside Istanbul to recover.<\/p>\n
Nigeria sought his repatriation and Turkey\u2019s conservation authorities launched the process but halted it after a DNA test confirmed Zeytin belonged to a species not native to Nigeria. <\/p>\n
On Friday, Turkish officials announced that Zeytin would not be repatriated to Nigeria but kept in a zoo in Turkey.<\/p>\n
Pandrillus Foundation in Nigeria was preparing to house Zeytin with another young gorilla of the same sub-species before sending the pair to a sanctuary in central Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are exceedingly disappointed. There is no logic in what the Turkish government is doing,\u201d Pandrillus Foundation director Liza Gadsby told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if Turkey doesn\u2019t want to send him to Nigeria, but directly to a gorilla sanctuary, that\u2019s fine. But they need to do the right thing for this animal,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey did the right thing by confiscating him in the first place,\u201d but keeping him in Turkey \u201cgoes against everything that they\u2019re supposed to be doing as a signatory to CITES\u201d, or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, she said.<\/p>\n
The Pandrillus Foundation has another gorilla which was confiscated by Nigerian customs over two years ago. <\/p>\n
Gadsby said it would begin a process on Monday to repatriate the other gorilla to a habitat country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never intended to keep her,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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