Das böse Geschäft der Affenhändler
Smugglers of live primates around the world are pushing them to the brink.
Special New York Times
MBANDAKA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Daniel Stiles, a self-styled ape trafficking detective in Kenya, had been scouring Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp for weeks, looking for pictures of gorillas, chimps or orangutans. He was hoping to chip away at an illicit global trade that has resulted in the capture or death of tens of thousands of apes and pushed some species to the brink of extinction.
“The way they do business,” he said of ape traffickers, “makes the Mafia look like amateurs.”
After hundreds of searches, Mr. Stiles found an Instagram account offering a variety of rare animals for sale, including baby chimpanzees and orangutans dressed in children’s clothes. He sent an email to an address on the account — “looking for young otans” (the industry standard slang for orangutans) — and several days later received a reply.
“2 babies, 7.5k each. Special introductory price.”
The trafficker identified himself as Tom and said he was in Southeast Asia. Mr. Stiles knew what Tom was hoping for: to sell the orangutans to a private collector or zoo, where they are often beaten or drugged and used for entertainment, mindlessly banging on drums or boxing each other. Ape shows are a growing business in Southeast Asia, despite interna- tional regulations that prohibit trafficking in endangered apes.
Several weeks later, after a few more rounds of text messages with Tom to firm up the details, Mr. Stiles decided to
fly to Bangkok.
“I was way out on a limb,” Mr. Stiles admitted later. But he was eager to bring down Tom, who indicated that he could find orangutans and chimps with only a few days’ notice, the mark of a major dealer.
Ape trafficking is a global criminal enterprise that hauls in billions of dollars. But unlike the thriving business in elephant ivory, rhino horns, tiger bone wine or pangolin scales, ape smuggling involves live animals — some of the most endangered, intelligent and sensitive animals on Earth.
Mr. Stiles, 72, is the lead author of “Stolen Apes,” a report published by the United Nations in 2013. He and the other researchers estimated that the smuggling had claimed more than 22,000 apes — either trafficked or killed.
Malnourished and terrified apes have been seized across the world, in countries as varied as France, Nepal, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kuwait. Two years ago, at Cairo’s international airport, authorities discovered a baby chimp curled up and stashed in hand luggage. Just this summer, the authorities in Cameroon stopped a smuggler at a roadblock who had a tiny chimp, not even a month old, hidden in a plastic sack.
But for every bust, five to 10 other animals slip through. And for every smuggled ape, several more are killed. Poachers often wipe out entire families to get their hands on a single infant, which is far easier to smuggle.
“Transporting an adult chimp is like transporting a crate of dynamite,” said Doug Cress, who until recently was the head of the Great Apes Survival Partnership, a United Nations program. “The adults are extremely aggressive and dangerous. That’s why everyone wants a baby.”
Wildlife researchers say that a secret ape pipeline runs from the forests of central Africa and Southeast Asia, through loosely policed ports in the developing world, ending in wealthy homes and zoos thousands of kilometers away.
A gorilla baby can fetch $250,000. Many times, researchers say, they can only begin to track where the apes have ended up by stumbling across the Facebook posts and YouTube videos of rich pet collectors.
“This is sick,” Mr. Stiles said of a picture of a chimpanzee wearing lipstick. “You got this poor animal, without its mother, without any other members of its own species, totally bewildered and terrorized, all for human amusement.”
Although a handful of Western businessmen have been arrested, the majority of recent busts have been in Africa or Southeast Asia, usually of low-level traffickers or poorly paid underlings.
Most gorillas, gibbons, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos live deep in the rain forest. The Basankusu region of Congo is one of the last bonobo refuges and a source of many trafficked apes.
Bonobos, said Jef Dupain, an ape specialist for the African Wildlife Foundation, have consciousness, empathy and understanding. “One day we will wonder how did we ever come up with the idea to keep them in cages,” he said.
Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, has a large chimp locked up in a cage.
As one leaves the towns and travels into the thick forests, the use of apes changes. Out here, as in remote parts of Southeast Asia, where many people are poor and desperate for protein, apes are also food.
Jonas Mange, who now works on education projects for the African Wildlife Foundation, used to hunt bonobos in Congo, venturing into the shadowy recesses of the forest and laying snares made from loops of twisted wire. If he discovered an adult bonobo in one of his traps, he would quickly shoot it with a shotgun and sell the meat, usually for a few dollars per carcass, if that.
But a baby was different, he said. There was a market for infant apes, so he would sell them alive for at least $10 each, to local traders who would then smuggle them to Kinshasa and sell them to foreigners for many times that amount.
“Bonobos are clever,” Mr. Mange said. If they get their feet stuck in a trap, they don’t screech wildly in panic. Instead, he said, bonobos quietly try to untangle the snare without being detected.
In Boende, a town up a tributary of the Congo River, three hunters were recently caught with bonobo carcasses and sentenced to several years in prison. The men said they were trying to feed their families by selling bonobo meat.
Mr. Stiles has made several trips to the United Arab Emirates, which he considers a new hub for the illegal online wildlife business. Dealers in the Middle East have posted many pictures of apes for sale, sometimes advertising them as friendly pets for children.
Many chimps have been drugged with muscle relaxers or alcohol to make them easier to handle. Some are trained to smoke cigarettes and guzzle beer. Orangutans are gentler than chimps, but still, they are not always gentle, and investigators say zoo trainers sometimes beat them with lead pipes wrapped in rolled-up newspapers to force them to perform tricks. Several years ago, the Indonesian police rescued a female orangutan who had been shaved and was being used as a prostitute.
“Even if we can rescue them, it’s very difficult reintroducing them to the wild,” said Mr. Cress, the former head of the United Nations Great Apes program. “They’re all goofed up. They need serious rehab. The ones who have been given alcohol, their hands shake. They have the same withdrawal symptoms we do.”
International wildlife regulations prohibit the trade of endangered apes. While zoos and other educational institutions are allowed to acquire apes, they need permits showing that the apes were bred in captivity, not captured in the wild. (All great ape species are endangered; most gibbons species are as well.)
It’s relatively easy to falsify permits, though, and wildlife investigators have tracked illegally sold apes to Iraq, China, Dubai and Bangkok’s Safari World zoo, where orangutans have been trained to wear boxing gloves and spar.
Safari World was outed more than 10 years ago for using orangutans smuggled from Indonesian jungles. Dozens of animals were seized from the park and flown home.
But the boxing shows continue, with a new set of animals, despite an outcry from wildlife groups. Safari World executives said that none of their animals were abused and that the orangutans were fed “human- grade fruits” and lived in air- conditioned rooms.
They also said it wasn’t their fault that the authorities had discovered that some of their orangutans had been improperly acquired. Safari World said it relied on third- party suppliers, and the zoo insisted that most of its apes had been born in Thailand.
“When you come to our park,” said Litti Kewkacha, its executive vice president, “you will only see smiles on our orangutans.”
Wildlife activists have been frustrated with some celebrities as well. Last year, the United Nations program, Grasp, publicly chastised Paris Hilton for circulating pictures of herself cuddling an infant orangutan dressed in baby clothes.
To arrange his orangutan sting, Mr. Stiles checked into the Landmark hotel in Bangkok and contacted the wildlife trafficker on WhatsApp.
Mr. Stiles knew it was dangerous to flirt with a known smuggler. So he brought his investigation to Freeland, a nonprofit group that combats wildlife and human trafficking from a large office in central Bangkok. Freeland works in secrecy, with undercover agents based in a sealed room that other employees are not allowed to enter. It also works closely with the Thai police, including one undercover officer known as Inspector X.
Over the next few days, with Inspector X and other agents lurking in his hotel room, Mr. Stiles exchanged more messages with Tom, to arrange a meeting. A couple of times, they even talked on the phone. Tom’s real identity remained a mystery. He had a Malaysian or Indonesian accent, spoke English fluently and was never at a loss for words.
“Oh man, you’re going to have some fun,” Tom said about the orangutan babies. “Getting ready for some sleepless nights?”
In late December, the day of the meeting, Inspector X and the other agents staked out the appointed location — a supermarket parking lot in central Bangkok. A taxi pulled up.
Inspector X and the agents pounced, arresting the driver and discovering two baby orangutans in the back seat, clutching each other. They appeared scared but healthy, and have since been sent to a Thai wildlife sanctuary. But Tom was nowhere to be found.
Mr. Stiles was overjoyed that the orangutans were rescued, but he was frustrated, too. “We got to get to the dealers,” he said.
Since the sting, he has been back on Instagram, looking for more apes. And more Toms.