Adorable child gorilla rescued from cage on a aircraft from Nigeria to Thailand
A five month old baby Gorilla has been found in the cargo hold of a Turkish airlines flight zookeepers are debating what to do with the stowaway – the public has named him, Zeytin
A baby gorilla rescued from a plane’s cargo hold after a traumatic cross-continental journey. Zeytin the five-month-old primate was found during an Istanbul layover on a Turkish Airlines plane flight from Nigeria to Thailand.
The little fella is currently recovering at Istanbul’s Polonezkoy Zoo where a poll was opened to the public to decide on the gorilla’s name. Zeytin was picked over Olive. Since his harrowing experience in cross continental transit, Zeytin has been recovering by gaining weight and becoming more confident.
Veterinarian at the zoo, Gulf Esmen, commented on the young gorilla’s condition: “When he first came, he was shy, he would stay where we left him.
“He doesn’t have that shyness now. He doesn’t even care much about us. He plays games by himself.”
The regional director of Istanbul’s nature conservation said: “Of course, we want and desires for the baby gorilla… to continue its life in its homeland. What is important is that an absolutely safe environment is established in the place it goes to, which is extremely important to us.”
This is not the first time Istanbul has found exotic animals onboard passenger flights. Last October 17 young Nile crocodiles and 10 monitor lizards were found in an Egyptian passenger’s luggage in Istanbul’s Sabiha Airport.
Both Gorilla species, the western and eastern gorillas that populate central Africa’s remote forest and mountains are classified as endangered species by the International Union of Conservation of Nature.
The UN reports gorilla species have been decreasing in their numbers for decades and the findings suggest that the species may disappear from large parts of the Congo Basin by the mid 2020s.
Habitat loss, poaching and disease are responsible for the species’ drop in population.
For more incredible stories from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters
