![]() Police seized Huzhiavichus’s laptop and phones that day in April 2018, their contents providing a rare glimpse into a global wildlife trafficking ring that spanned three continents, smuggling exotic birds from South America and Asia into Europe. The operation was over so fast that the afternoon shoppers at the nearby garden center barely noticed the commotion. Huzhiavichus made a move to run, but was quickly brought down by an officer. Then “all hell broke loose,” he recalled.Ĭommandos from the Austrian Interior Ministry’s elite Task Force Cobra stormed out of a white van, blocking the exits of the parking lot. This was going to be a big deal: The birds were going to be swapped for 133,000 euros ($161,000) in cash. Still, Huzhiavichus ignored his misgivings. But this time the buyer, a Swede, had insisted on doing the handover in a public place, at a strip mall about 45 minutes’ drive outside Vienna. Usually, the wildlife smuggler met customers in the relative safety of their homes. Stanislavas Huzhiavichus had two palm cockatoos and 12 birds of paradise in the trunk of his rental Audi A4, and a gut feeling that something wasn’t right.Įverything was fine with the birds - he had made sure they were fed and watered, and the cockatoos’ black headfeathers were long and lustrous - but the parking lot where he was about to hand them over in exchange for a briefcase full of cash was a little too quiet. Metal rings around birds’ legs are supposed to prove that they were bred in captivity, but the smugglers also found a way to fake those. Although only captive-bred rare birds are allowed to be traded, the smugglers frequently used fake CITES permits, or reused permits many times over, to move birds into the European Union.The carcasses of birds that perished were dumped in the trash. Birds often died in transit, but their deaths were seen as the price of doing business, given the high profit margins in the wildlife trade.Austrian authorities found evidence that the smuggling ring employed at least five such couriers. A smuggler told OCCRP that he made an average of 50,000 euros on each trip to deliver birds, and sometimes as much as 140,000 euros.Austrian officials who investigated the wildlife smuggling ring estimated it could have made around 30 million euros a year ($36 million at the time).The group smuggled thousands of birds into Europe, selling them to private collectors and even conservation centers that claim to protect rare species, according to court documents and customs officials.Listing of the birds will mean developments likely to trigger a significant impact on the species must be assessed under national laws. That decline was expected to continue because increased heatwaves and fire frequency as a result of the climate emergency were increasing pressure on the species across its range, with bushfires likely to reduce the amount of nesting habitat available to the birds. ![]() The bushfires affected 36% of the birds’ range, leading to an estimated further drop in numbers of 21%. The scientific committee wrote in draft advice last year that gang-gang populations had already declined by between 15% and 69% before the fires. The bird is one of several plants and animals that required assessment after the 2019-20 bushfire disaster a number of other species are also expected to be added to the threatened list. They are a common sight in Canberra, where they are often found in back yards in the inner suburbs and in nearby bushland reserves. ![]() The adult males are known for their distinctive red facial feathers. ![]() Gang-gangs are small, grey cockatoos found throughout south-eastern Australia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |