The "Taiping Four" gorillas will be back in Cameroon on Friday, the National Zoological Gardens of SA and the International Fund for Animal Welfare said on Wednesday.

"The full repatriation team has gathered and is on standby," they said in a joint statement. The gorillas were due to board a plane late on Thursday and arrive back in Cameroon early tomorrow.

The western lowland gorillas were sent to the Pretoria Zoo in 2004 at the request of Malaysia, which confiscated them in 2002 after discovering they had been illegally imported to its Taiping Zoo from Nigeria.

Cameroon asked that the animals be returned to their country of origin. The three females and a male are known as Izan, Abbey, Tinu and Oyin, and are aged between six and nine.

They will be returned to the Limbe Wildlife Centre sanctuary.

Their relocation follows years of lobbying by, among others, the Born Free Foundation, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, the International Primates Protection League, and the Last Great Ape Organisation. - Sapa

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