Saving Jack the Gorilla

Ofir received a call from an investigator in Abong-Mbang, Cameroon, who said he had located an orphaned chimp. The chimp was actually a gorilla. Reaching a gorilla baby who has survived the slaughter of its family is incredibly rare. We stayed with Jack inside a dank hotel room while formulating a plan to smuggle him to the capital.

Jack drinking milk - David McDannald

The local officials charged with the task of protecting endangered species would not give us a permit to transport Jack; they wanted a bribe. So we put the gorilla into a box and smuggled him to Yaounde in one of two working taxis in town. Multiple flat tires and battery failure meant a four hour journey took ten hours, and we weren’t sure that Jack had survived the trip when we finally reached the capital.

Ofir and I passed through a series of harrowing roadblocks where baby Jack was almost discovered by policemen. We feared he might not have survived the twelve-hour trip in the box.

We were carrying an old video camera and you can find Jack's story in the film, Ofir.