[5] In 2006, 5 gorillas that were rehabilitated by the foundation and released into the wild after they were orphaned due to the bushmeat trade and then sold into the illegal pet market were relocated to an island after wandering into nearby villages searching for love.

[6] In 2007, the charity publicly opposed Chinese attempts to relax the rules governing the trade in products made from tigers.

[9] In 2010, a video of Aspinall tracking Kwibi, a celebrity gorilla released in 2005 at age 5 in Gabon, became widely viewed on YouTube.

The animals include those rescued from the local illegal pet trade and rewilded from Aspinall's two UK wildlife parks.

[14] In October 2019, the foundation – alongside an international team of conservationists – rescued 11 elephants, 4 giraffe, 19 African Buffalo and 29 wildebeest from Blaauwbosch, South Africa, after a sustained period of drought and neglect at a mismanaged game reserve.

Damian Aspinall personally released the two male cheetahs, who were born at Port Lympne, into their new home close to Cape Town.

She wonders about the value of sending zoo-born animals to Africa and believes that it would be wiser for Aspinall to use his funds to save gorillas already in the wild.

Some experts questioned the wisdom of this strategy, citing issues such as the stress caused by "a hazardous journey", low temperatures at night in Africa, as well as "unfamiliar surroundings, foraging for food, predators and illness".