Freya Aspinall's journey to rewild gorillas in Congo | Aspinall Foundation

The Aspinall Foundation is dedicated to protecting endangered animals around the world. It has rewilded over 300 animals, including 70 gorillas, and it is the only organisation in the world to rewild gorillas.

17-year-old Freya Aspinall went to The Congo for the first time to visit gorillas that The Aspinall Foundation rescued.

Freya's mission is to help her father, Damian Aspinall, to rewild and protect as many animals as possible.

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Freya Aspinall, youngest daughter of prominent conservationist Damian Aspinall, has followed in the footsteps of her father and grandfather, whose special relationships with wild animals have made headlines for generations.

Freya, herself already a dedicated conservationist at just 17-years-old, joined an Aspinall Foundation rewilding project team this spring to rewild a male gorilla named Joshi.

The 13-year-old, 30-stone gorilla was born just a few meters from Freya’s childhood home at Howletts Wild Animal Park and the pair have known each other for most of Freya’s life.

The team translocated Joshi from Howletts Wild Animal Park in the Kent countryside to the lush jungles of Lesio-Louna Reserve, Congo-Brazzaville. There, he will be introduced to a pair of orphaned gorillas rescued by The Aspinall Foundation and the trio will form a new group living in an area of protected wilderness.

Freya and her father accompanied Joshi on his journey before heading to visit the gorilla orphanage established by her grandfather.

The orphanage, built by The Aspinall Foundation in 1989, was the world’s first gorilla orphanage. It was established following a 1987 agreement between the charity and the Ministry of Forestry of the Congo to allow the Aspinall Foundation to begin its work to protect the western lowland gorilla. Since then, the charity has rescued over 80 orphaned gorillas - usually traumatised, weak and depressed following the devastating loss of their family group, most often to the bush meat trade and poaching.
Freya said: “It was such a privilege to see these young gorillas thriving at the orphanage after being saved from heart-breaking circumstances. My visit to Joshi was particularly poignant, having seen him born and grow up at Howletts. It was so fantastic to see him acclimatising so well to life in the Congo.

“The team here are incredibly dedicated, and the success of the Foundation’s Gorilla Protection Project is testament to that.”

The Aspinall Foundation has reintroduced over 70 gorillas back into the wild, including 26 who travelled from its two parks, Port Lympne and Howletts in Kent. Many have formed new family groups and are producing young. In total, more than 35 babies have been born in the wild across the charity’s projects in Congo and Gabon.