Heartless Smuggler Stuffed Birds In Bottles ALIVE To Smuggle Them Through Customs
Around 40 percent of birds die during the illegal smuggling process.
By Sadho Ram — 06 May 2015, 03:10 PM
Indonesian police have arrested a man they suspect was trying to smuggle two dozen of yellow-crested cockatoos, a rare bird species, by stuffing them inside plastic bottles. He was caught carrying the live birds on a passenger ship near the Surabaya city.
The yellow-crested cockatoos were found on Monday by officials at Tanjung Perak port in Surabaya. The birds were cut free from bottles and given medical treatment, The Mail Online reported.
Smugglers crammed the Yellow-crested cockatoos into empty bottles so they could get through customs at Port of Tanjung Perak in Surabaya, Indonesia. But Indonesian Police discovered the birds, which can be sold for as much as £650 each, and cut them free so they could receive medical attention.
dailymail.co.ukAccording to The BBC, the birds were kept inside bottles to stop them from flapping. The birds, which are native to Indonesia, are known to sell through legal channels for about USD1,500 each.
Yellow-crested cockatoos inserted in empty water bottles at Port of Tanjung Perak in Surabaya.
Image via The TelegraphWhile the exact number of yellow-crested cockatoos in the wild is not known, according to the Mail Online report, they were listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 2007
The population is at a critical low due to deforestation and poaching and recent studies suggest there may be less than 7,000 individuals remaining. More than 10,000 parrots, including Lories and Cockatoos, are caught from the wild in North Halmahera, Indonesia, each year to supply the domestic and the international illegal wildlife trade.
dailymail.co.ukBirdlife, a nature conservation group, say the birds' numbers are dropping due to "unsustainable trapping for the cagebird trade"
The species came under particular pressure because of wildlife traffickers and deforestation in the last 25 years of the 20th century, the website said, noting that “it is now extinct on many [Indonesian] islands and close to extinction on most others”.
Criminal gangs that prey on Indonesian wildlife continued to flourish last year, according to a recent report by Profauna, an NGO that monitors threats to the country’s environment.
In 2013, two Indonesian military employees were given a warning after they were found to be running a bird-smuggling ring on board a military aircraft. Bags containing rare birds were found when the plane refuelled in Australia, according to a report by The BBC.
Meanwhile, a while ago, a guy tried to smuggle 94 iPhones into China by strapping them to his body: