After following the movement of criminal gangs in the habitats of the great apes, and seeing how the great beasts are being used as pawns and trafficked by the gangs, the International Conservation authorities have finally put in place a plan to stop the gruesome trade and save the few remaining apes.
A global tracking system will be set up first to assess what is the total surviving number of the species, and then how many of these are being kidnapped from their habitat and sold either to rich collectors or trained to perform for money.
The int'l organization, called Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has 177 signatary countries, and will meet for the 16th year in Bangkok, Thailand.
A fist count of the possible abduction from the wild of great apes, puts the number at approximately 3,000 per year.
A live chimp can be sold for 50$, but then it could be re-sold by a dealer for as many as 400 times more that amount. Orangs are sold for 1,000, and gorillas could be sold illegally to foreign zoos for as much as 400,000$, as did happen in a Malaysian zoo in 2002.
This is all part of a money making scheme that includes money laundering, drug and arms trafficking and other ways of obtaining funds for the criminal gangs.
But for the great apes, this is an even greater crisis. And what is sad, is that the demand is driven in great part by asiatic zoos and theme parks.
Even though the zoos make a request in legal ways, they are in the end obtained through poachers on the ground who kidnap them from their habitat, and many times members of the ape group will be killed when they try to take the babies or just to fend off their defense.
Unfortunately some apes are also obtained for personal collection, as it the case in some Gulf states, where some of the great apes disappear in private menageries.
Many of these species are highly endangered. So this new initiative is raising hopes that finally something will be done to protect these animals.
Apes are also hunted for their meat. And that in some areas is the chief reason for the ape trade.
But there is a silver lining. In Uganda, the great mountain gorilla's numbers are increasing for the first time in decades, partly because a tourist program on the ground that allows people to see the silverbacks in their habitat is providing funds to the locals, who would otherwise supplement their income by poaching.
Source: NBC news 3.14.13
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