Four baby gorillas bought by a Malaysian zoo illegally last year will be sent to South Africa's Pretoria Zoo.

The gorillas, believed to have been captured in the wild and smuggled out of Nigeria, would be sent to Pretoria 'as soon as possible,' Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

The Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits trade in endangered species caught in the wild, approved the move, he said.