After three decades in captivity at a private zoo in Bangkok, the well-known gorilla, Bua Noi, may finally be granted a return “home” to where she was born in Germany, if the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s plan to repatriate her is a success.
Thaneadpon Thanaboonyawat, secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said yesterday that Minister Varawut Silpa-archa plans to repatriate Bua Noi, or “Little Lotus”, to the zoo in Germany where she was bred. However, Pata Zoo has put the price of her relocation at 30 million baht.
“We have received complaints from visitors to the zoo, animal lovers and wildlife activists for years about the living conditions of Bua Noi, and that she has lived a solitary life for 30 years. Now she is entering what is considered old age for her species, we all want to see her enjoy her final years in a more comfortable, better place where she can have companions or join her family of other gorillas,” he said.
Bua Noi was only three years old when Pata Zoo bought her for 3 million baht from Germany in 1992. At that time Thailand was not a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites). Bua Noi has been raised in a 20×10-metre cage in the zoo located on the 6th and 7th floors of the Pata Pinklao Department Store. She is also known as “Pata King Kong”. Bua Noi is the country’s sole gorilla.
As she is 33 years old and the average lifespan of gorillas is about 40–50 years, the ministry hatched the plan to take her back to her family, he said.
Pata Zoo said she has always been well looked after and it spent about 10,000 baht a month to raise her. She is too old to adjust to the wild or another way of life, they argue.
The ministry, however, still wants to pursue its effort to send her back.
“We will hold fundraising activities for Bua Noi and gather the donations to buy her out. Still, her owner insists on a price which is beyond the ministry’s capacity. Bua Noi was bought by them when Thailand was not a party to Cites so she legally belongs to the zoo,” said Mr Thaneadpon.
Bua Noi has often been a source of controversy. Every year, conservationists and animal lovers in Thailand and abroad launch campaigns to free the zoo’s star attraction, arguing a tall concrete building is not the right habitat for Bua Noi and other animals.
In 2014, animal lovers started a petition on Change.org to find a new home for Bua Noi.
More than 36,000 names signed the petition which was sent to the director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.