Ninety-one endangered animals endemic to Indonesia that had been smuggled to the Philippines have returned to their home country.

Comprising reptiles, mammals and birds, such as wallabies, cassowaries and Papuan blyth’s hornbills, the animals arrived at Bitung Port in North Sulawesi on Thursday morning.

Environment and Forestry Ministry law enforcement director general Rasio Ridho Sani, Bitung Mayor Maximilian J. Lomban and North Sulawesi Natural Resources Conservation (BKSDA) head Noel Layuk Allo welcomed them upon their return home.

“The animals will stay at the Tasikosi Animal Rescue Center in Bitung before eventually being released in their natural habitats,” the ministry’s law enforcement directorate general spokesperson, Dodi Kurniawan, said in a statement.

Philippine authorities had confiscated the trafficked animals, which are considered endangered under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), on April 2019.

SunStar Philippines reported at the time that Davao’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources had rescued 300 species of wild animals.

Local law enforcers also arrested two men for allegedly smuggling the animals from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea by sea.

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