Smugglers stuff Yellow-crested cockatoos in plastic bottles

Conservation projects

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In today’s civilized world it’s really hard to imagine that somebody can still smuggle living parrots in plastic bottles. However, on this Monday 21 critically endangered Yellow-crested Cockatoos (Cacatua sulphurea) were confiscated from a smuggler in Indonesia, in water bottles.

According to the official press release there were also other cockatoos and some green parrots which officials from Indonesia’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) couldn’t identify.

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Birds were found by officials at the Tanjung Perak port in the city of Surabaya in east Java. Police have immediately arrested the criminal who carrying parrots on a passenger ship from Makassar, Sulawesi.

Richard Thomas, Global Communications Co-ordinator at Traffic International said for CNN: “…this shows the lengths that some people will go to try to smuggle birds.”

“There’s a lot of demand for parrots and cockatoos in southeast Asia and Europe,” Thomas said. “They could well have been destined for markets there, although obviously it’s illegal for wild-caught birds to be exported.”

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(c) Barcroft

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(c) Barcroft

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(c) Barcroft

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(c) Barcroft

IUCN classifies the Yellow-crested Cockatoo as „Critically endangered“, they are also in CITES Appendix I. According to BirdLife statistics there are less than 7000 individuals living in the wild. Specifically we can find 3,200-5,000 on Sumba (although perhaps as few as 562 in 2012, Burung Indonesia in prep), 500 on Komodo, 200-300 on Timor Leste, 200-300 on Sulawesi, 20-50 on West Timor, 40-70 on Flores, 50-100 on Sumbawa, 100 on Rinca and c.700 other birds in total.

This species is together with the Red-vented Cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia) the most endangered cockatoo in the wild.

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Title photo: (c) Barcroft

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