Baby gorilla rescued from hold of Turkish Airlines plane A baby gorilla rescued from the cargo hold of a Turkish Airlines plane is recovering at an Istanbul zoo and may be returned to his natural habitat, officials have said.
"Of course, what we want and desire is for the baby gorilla... to continue its life in its homeland," Fahrettin Ulu, regional director of Istanbul Nature Conservation and National Parks, said on Sunday.
The five-month old gorilla, named Zeytin, or Olive, after a public competition, was discovered in a box at Istanbul Airport during a customs check while he was being flown illegally from Nigeria to Thailand.
Both gorilla species - the western and eastern gorillas, which populate central Africa's remote forests and mountains - are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Plane makes emergency landing after pilot dies on Turkish Airlines flight.
