The baby gorilla rescued from the plane’s cargo hold is recovering at the Istanbul Zoo

A Young gorilla He was rescued from the plane’s cargo hold and is now recovering Istanbul While wildlife officers are considering returning him to his natural habitat, zoo officials said Sunday.

The 5-month-old gorilla was discovered in a box on a Turkish Airlines flight from Nigeria to Thailand last month. After a public competition, he was named Zeitin, or Olive, and is recovering at the Polonezkoy Zoo.

“Of course, what we want and desire is for the baby gorilla to continue his life in his homeland,” Fahrettin Ulu, Istanbul’s regional director of nature conservation and national parks, said on Sunday.

“What is important is to create a completely safe environment where you go, which is very important to us.”

In the weeks after he was found, Zeitin gained weight and began to show signs of recovering from his traumatic journey.

“When he first came, he was very shy and would stay where we left him,” veterinarian Gulfem Ismin said. “He doesn’t have that shyness now. He doesn’t care about us so much. He plays games himself.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies both species of gorillas – western and eastern gorillas, which live in the remote forests and mountains of central Africa – as threatened with extinction.

As Istanbul emerges as a major intercontinental air hub, customs officials increasingly intercept illegally trafficked animals. In October, 17 baby Nile crocodiles and 10 lizards were found in the luggage of an Egyptian traveler at the city’s Sabiha Gokcen Airport.