Djaltam, Djalta, KwibiKiba, Ama, Kido and Ima, are no ordinary gorillas.

Born at Howletts Wild Animal Park near Canterbury it has long been hoped that they would one day fufill animal park founder, the late John Aspinall's dream, of returning gorillas to the wild.

Relentless hunting for bush meat and the spread of the Ebola virus means gorillas are being killed in huge numbers in central Africa.

Since 1987 The John Aspinall Foundation has been rescuing wild, orphaned gorillas and relocating them to the Batéké Plateau and the Lésio-Louna reserve in Congo Brazzaville.

Now, through the pioneering work of the two Kent animal parks, these seven captive born gorillas, themselves rejected by their mothers, have joined them.

Accompanied by the head gorilla keeper at Howletts Colin Angus and vet Sandrine Mahe the animals, are living in the wild on the Batéké Plateau National Park in Gabon.

Having grown up being fed by keepers they are having to learn what food the forest provides and coming to terms with pests such as such a tse-tse flies and mosquitoes.

Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks are world leaders in the breeding of gorillas and the only organisation to release gorillas to the wild in the world.

It costs £6 million a year to run both Howletts and Port Lympne wild animal parks and The John Aspinall Foundation's overseas rehab programmes, such as the one in Gabon.

The project, which will give these gorillas the chance to live in the wild, cost £100,000 to set up with basic necessities.

It takes £65,000 annually to finance a park protection team to ensure the gorillas' welfare and safety and £40,000 a year is spent on a mobile education programme, essential if the trade in gorillas which leaves so many orphaned, is to stop. It costs another £75,000 a year to run the orphanage.

With such high running costs, it easy to see that the £15m left to the Foundation by the late John Aspinall to continue his work will not last long.

The charity is already running at a loss of £2.5m a year, so desperately needs the help of the people of Kent to help these gorillas live where they were born to live, in the wild.

THE JOURNEY PIX PD 460305/ PD 460306

THE SEVEN gorillas' pioneering journey back to the wild took one-and-a-half days, during which time the gorillas travelled by truck, boat, plane and helicopter.

The people of Gabon see their return as a source of national pride, so when they landed a of 250 people had gathered to greet them

It had been an immensely long journey, which had begun 36 hours before with gorilla being given a sedative in honey, which would allow the older ones to be more fully sedated with a needle for their transfer.

Among those who had gathered here to watch their departure was was Australia's Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, who had flown in for two days to film them leaving.

He said: . "Every zoological facility would like to say it's doing great things for conservation but doesn't have the money or experts to pull something like this off.

"It's a mammoth task to actually breed and rear these gorillas and manage an area of natural habitat that they can be released into.That they've done that is just amazing."

It was 30 minutes after the sedation that Djalta, the eldest gorilla, but still only five, was carried from the enclosure to the waiting truck by keeper Colin Lee. Within 10 minutes Kwibi, four, the second eldest, was carried out by Colin Angus and keeper Hannah Barlow on a stretcher.

Kiba was next, followed by the two babies Kido and Ima, who are both only about 18 months old. Ama followed and then Djaltam, Djalta's younger brother was carried to his crate by keeper Brian Hammer.

They set off in the early hours of the following morning.