I Putu Terunanegara, the quarantine agency head, said the birds were initially to be brought to Yogyakarta and Solo in Central Java.

However, since Denpasar is still dealing with avian influenza, every bird taken out from the area has to possess a health certificate.

“We have to perform strict monitoring, since birds and chickens are the carriers of bird flu,” Terunegara said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

Officers from the Denpasar Quarantine Agency found thousands of birds inside a pickup truck at a parking lot in Gilimanuk Maneuver Port in Jembrana on Monday. The birds were kept inside 27 cardboard boxes with holes and 48 plastic baskets.

“They used a catering truck for a Minang restaurant to fool the quarantine center officers,” Terunagara said.

The birds included 450 of the species Horsfield’s bush lark, 340 yellow vented bulbul, 600 bar-winged prinia, 1,040 yellow-ringed white eye, 38 pied bush chat, 70 Mees’s white eye, 70 Padda, 70 Lonchura and 20 orange-headed thrush. None of the birds are of protected species.

The officers also found that some of the birds had already died due to poor air circulation. The two drivers of the catering truck were not arrested, as authorities allowed them to complete the documents as stipulated in Law No. 21/2019 on animal, fisheries and plants quarantine.

Smuggling attempts of local birds, including protected ones, have been rampant in the country.

In August, the Maluku Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) thwarted attempted illegal trade involving birds and reptiles originating from the Maluku Islands. The protected animals were seized in three regions, namely North Sumatra, Jakarta and East Java.

Among them are 25 Moluccan cockatoos – a vulnerable species endemic to Seram Island, three endangered white cockatoos endemic to Indonesia's tropical rainforests, two near-threatened blushing cockatoos from Tanimbar Islands, 16 red lories, a black-winged lory, five chattering lories and four coconut lorikeets.

The captured animals also included 42 blue-tongued lizards and 27 Amboina sailfin lizards from Ambon Island.

Earlier, the Bakauheni Port Police (KSKP) together with the Lampung Agriculture Quarantine Body confiscated more than 29,000 birds intended to be shipped to Java in the period of January-June this year.

A top official at the Agriculture Quarantine Body, Karman, said authorities had managed to thwart at least 43 smuggling attempts at the port from January to June. The confiscated birds included 400 distinctive black and white kacer (Oriental magpie-robin), cucak ijo (greater green leafbird), kutilang (sooty-headed bulbul), perkutut (zebra dove) and prenjak (bar-winged prinia).

In May, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s rapid response team for the environment, the Leopards, thwarted alleged attempts to smuggle hundreds of protected typical white-eyes that were illegally caught in Mount Leuser National Park in Aceh province.

The team, under the North Sumatra Environment and Forestry Protection and Law Enforcement Agency, secured 1,266 birds that are locally known as pleci as they were allegedly being smuggled in a public bus heading to Medan, North Sumatra.

       In April, investigators at the West Tanjungjabung Police in Riau province arrested a bird trader for allegedly smuggling 1,218 songbirds. The trader was driving a minivan – full of protected birds, including kacer, greater green leafbirds, lesser green leafbirds, black-naped orioles, bar-winged prinias, Sumatran padda and hummingbirds – to cross the Riau province border with Jambi province.

The songbirds, also known as perching birds, are known for their melodious sounds and often used in songbird competitions. (dpk/vny)

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