About The Aspinall Foundation

The Howletts & Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks were set up by the late John Aspinall with the aim of protecting and breeding rare and endangered species and returning them to safe areas in their native homeland. The Parks are world leaders in conservation and have so far returned to the wild Przewalski’s horses, black rhino, Sumatran rhino, Cape buffalo, ocelots, pythons and gorillas.

Our objectives are:
• To halt the extinction of rare and endangered species in the wild
• To continue to provide the most natural environment possible for the animals
• To continue to be world leaders in animal husbandry and breeding
• To be a partner and catalyst to conservation efforts at home and abroad
• Increasing public understanding of animals and their welfare and the issues involved in their conservation
• To re-introduce these animals back to their wild habitat where this is possible

We need your help before it’s too late

If the number of western lowland gorillas continue to decline at the present rate, the species will be extinct by 2020.

The John Aspinall Foundation, in conjunction with Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks, is devoted to saving rare and endangered animals. As a registered charity, it relies on donations to help continue with its breeding and reintroduction programmes for endangered animals to their natural habitat.

These activities include the management of two Gorilla rescue and reintroduction projects in Congo and Gabon, Central Africa. We have over fifty western lowland gorillas in our care, forty of whom have been successfully reintroduced.

Six of the gorillas currently in Gabon were born in Howletts Wild Animal Park and were transferred in August 2003 to their natural home.

We have been rewarded with six births to reintroduced gorillas, thus showing the sustainability of the project. This year we are taking two more gorillas, bred at Howletts, to Gabon.

Please help us to continue our vital work and help save gorillas in the wild, by buying a tile today.