Examples from “On the Trail”, the information and analysis report on endangered animals poaching and smuggling:
– Beginning of August 2025
Winnenden, Rems-Murr District, Baden-Württemberg Land, Germany
Heritage looting. Seizure of 3 traditional headdresses composed of around a hundred parrot feathers (Psittacidae, Appendix I or II except for 3 species) in a parcel sent from Brazil. Based on the photos, the feathers are likely to belong to blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna, Appendix II) and red-and-green macaws (Ara chloropterus, Appendix II) (extract from “On the Trail” n°47 p.99, ref.69)
© Hauptzollamt Stuttgart
– February 9, 2024
Maritime Region, Togo
The crew of a Togolese Navy speedboat responding to a distress call from a pleasure boat 30 km off the coast discovered 12 Lear’s macaws (Anodorhynchus leari, Appendix I) and 20 golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia, Appendix I) on board, 3 of whom were dead. The sailing and motor boat is believed to have left Brazil in early January, with Benin as its final destination. A Brazilian, a Surinamese, a Uruguayan, a Togolese, and the alleged leader of the gang, who allegedly held several passports (Israel, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan), were arrested and put behind bars (extract from “On the Trail” n°44 p.174-175, ref.2).
– February 2, 2024
Governador Valadares, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Roadside check on the BR-116 towards São Paulo. The PRF (Federal Highway Police) was well informed. The car occupied by 2 Ukrainian tourists was found to contain an artificial incubator incubating 6 bird eggs. During their escorted transfer to the police station, one of the women managed to break 5 eggs. The aim was to remove all the evidence. According to the expert’s report, the intact egg and the broken eggs were Lear’s macaw eggs (Anodorhynchus leari, Appendix I). They had been stolen from nests inside a protected area in the State of Bahia. The 2 traffickers allegedly intended to sell or deliver them to a gang in Suriname.
– September 2023
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangdong Province, China
Seizure of 250 fingerlings of arapaima (Arapaima gigas, Appendix II), the giant fish of the Amazon basin, inside a parcel declared to contain “fingerling of Channa micropeltes”, a freshwater fish native to Java, Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula (extract from “On the Trail” n°42 p.155, ref.18).
© China Customs
– July 19, 2023
Paramaribo, Paramaribo District, Suriname
Hold-up worth over 2 million dollars in a warehouse in Paramaribo, Suriname. Twenty-three Lear’s macaws (Anodorhynchus leari, Appendix I), which sell on the international black market for up to 100,000 US$, were stolen at around 1 a.m. on August 22, a few hours before they had to be recovered by Brazilian experts and investigators who flew in on a federal police plane. They were part of a batch of 29 specimens poached in Brazil and seized in Suriname in July after being smuggled through French Guiana. Suriname’s Minister of Foreign Affairs apologized to the Brazilian ambassador and did his utmost to avoid a diplomatic incident, assuring him that Brazil’s cultural and genetic heritage would be recovered in good condition. Lear’s macaws, magnificent cobalt-blue birds, are sought after as far away as India (extract from “On the Trail” n°41 p.115, ref.77).
“On the Trail”, the world as it is.
https://robindesbois.org/en/a-la-trace-bulletin-dinformation-et-danalyses-sur-le-braconnage-et-la-contrebande/
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