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Authorities thwart smuggling of 29,000 Sumatran birds
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he Bakauheni Port police, in cooperation with the Lampung Agriculture Quarantine Body, have confiscated more than 29,000 birds intended to be shipped to Java over the past six months.
Karman, a top official at the Agriculture Quarantine Body, said authorities had managed to thwart at least 43 smuggling attempts at the port from January to June this year.
The latest smuggling attempt was intercepted last Saturday, with 400 distinctive black and white kacer (Oriental magpie-robin) seized from a minivan that had departed from Jambi. The driver failed to show official documents for the shipment, the official explained.
"All of the birds have been handed over to the Lampung Natural Resources Conservation Agency to be released into the wild," Karman said Monday.
Other birds confiscated include cucak ijo (greater green leafbird), kutilang (sooty-headed bulbul), perkutut (zebra dove) and prenjak (bar-winged prinia), with the smugglers attempting to deliver the majority of the birds to the Pramuka bird market in East Jakarta.
In April, investigators at the West Tanjung Jabung police in Jambi arrested a bird trader for allegedly smuggling hundreds of songbirds, including species listed as protected, from neighboring Riau to Jambi.
The trader, a resident of Riau’s West Rengat district, was driving a minivan with 1,218 birds across provincial borders. The car was full of protected birds, including kacer, greater green leafbirds, lesser green leafbirds, black-naped orioles, prenjak, Sumatran padda and hummingbirds.
The songbirds, also known as perching birds, are known for their melodious sounds and often used in songbird competitions.
Last year, the authorities managed to stop the illegal shipping of roughly 39,000 birds in 45 different smuggling attempts, kompas.com reported. (vny)
