Earth Matters: Turkey struggles with national epidemic: primate smuggling

Sansli and Kinali

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From Correspondent Mary Pflum

March 17, 2000
Web posted at: 5:34 p.m. EST (2234 GMT)

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Poachers have smuggled baby chimpanzees and monkeys from Africa for the international pet trade for years. Most countries have taken steps to prevent the illegal animals from crossing their borders, but there's one notable exception: Turkey.

Sansli and Kinali, new additions to the Bosphorous Zoo in Istanbul, symbolize Turkey's ongoing primate problems. Both were smuggled from Africa and put up for sale in Turkey on the black market.

"It's a nationwide problem. We're actually finding baby chimpanzees and monkeys all across Turkey," said Allison Cronin, the science director of Monkey World, a primate rescue center based in Britain.

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The smuggling process usually begins with considerable violence.

"What happens in the wild, to get one of the babies away from their mothers, they actually have to shoot and kill the family group to take the baby away," she said.

Cronin and her husband Jim have made some progress since they began lobbying to stop Turkey's primate trade two years ago. In January, authorities seized monkeys that a group of Nigerians were attempting to smuggle into an Istanbul airport.

Thanks to similar seize-and-rescue operations, the number of chimps at the recently established chimpanzee refuge at the Bosphorous Zoo has grown to nine in the last year.

But sales of the animals continues in some cities including Ankara, the Turkish capital, and Istanbul, where primates are sold alongside farm animals and domestic goods.

A visitor might see a half dozen monkeys in pet shops while strolling through Istanbul's Egypt Bazaar. Pet shop owners sometimes offer chimpanzees as well, for a hefty price. One requested $10,000.

Authorities seized two baby chimps from the shopkeeper last year, but he remains free to conduct business.

Turkish customs officials say they're doing all they can. "(They) are aware of the problem," said Erkan Kayaoz, manager of the Istanbul Forestry Ministry, a national environmental agency. "If they catch the smugglers, they'll stop them, but most don't go through customs,"

Faruk Yalain, the owner of the Bosphorous Zoo, blames African sailors, who reportedly bring primates in suitcases aboard small ships to Istanbul's central harbor.

"The guilty are the African people. They bring them without showing customs," he said.

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Turkish officials say they try to follow the CITES agreement, an international treaty that prohibits the sale of endangered animals, including chimpanzees.

But no national law forbids the sale or ownership of primates. Until Turkey passes such a law and punishes offenders, pet storeowners have little incentive to change their ways.

Charley, a popular television show starring an adorable chimp, has enamoured many Turks with the idea of chimpanzee pets. Primate peddlers can also rely on the baby-like charm of young chimpanzees to encourage sales.

Customers are willing to part with as much as $20,000 to take one home. But in a matter of five years the cuddly babies become powerful adults, six times stronger than humans.

The primates come health risks as well. "These animals are being smuggled out Africa and there are no medical tests being done on them. They can carry any number of human diseases that can actually kill human beings," Cronin said.

Even if Turkey succeeds in cracking down on primate imports, the question remains what will happen to the animals already there. The Turkish government wants to establish an endangered animal refuge in 2001.

In the meantime, Ankara relies on private zoo owners like Yalain for help. But his primate quarters are full. "We ... have no more places," he said.

With no places to take the animals, authorities have less incentive to continue their pet shop raids. Sansli and Kinali were fortunate in being relocated to a refuge. For now, other primates in Turkey are out of luck.

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