Bright green parrots are jammed into their cages at Mexico City's Sonora Market. Brown snakes lie in a slithery tangle. Toucans squawk loudly as if in protest. No wonder they seem unhappy. The animals were snatched from their homes in the wild. Some are rare breeds. Inspectors once found 106 endangered species at the market in a single day. It is against international law to sell them.
Markets like this one are found all over the world. In Brazil, scarlet macaws stolen from the Amazon rain forest go for $200. In Malaysia, rare blood pythons are sold for $40. Many buyers smuggle them overseas, where they sell at much, much higher prices.
The world's illegal animal trade is worth several billion dollars a year. Americans buy the most animals, followed by Europeans and Japanese. The trade includes not only live animals but also parts of rare animals, such as rhinoceros horns and tiger bones. These are used in some countries as medicines.
On September 15, authorities in Mexico arrested Keng Liang Wong, suspected head of a major ring of illegal reptile traders. Among the pets he's accused of smuggling: Indonesia's rare Komodo dragon and Madagascar's plowshare tortoise. Each sells for up to $30,000! The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spent five years tracking Wong. "Stealing the world's natural treasure takes a toll that cannot be measured," says Jamie Rappaport Clark, head of the FWS. "It robs countries of their natural heritage, disrupts ecosystems and shortchanges future generations."
A Brutal Business
People have always been fascinated by rare animals. But these days, having one as a pet is considered cool. "People collect rare pets like anything else--stamps, art, cars," says Craig Hoover of traffic. "They want what no one else has." His group, run by the World Wildlife Fund and World Conservation Union,
monitors the wildlife trade.
Rare animals like those Wong is accused of trading are usually trapped by poor villagers known as poachers. Anyone can be a poacher. Kids in Costa Rica, for example, steal newly hatched toucans from their nests. Dealers pay a few dollars to the poacher and then find people to smuggle the animals overseas. "The rarer the species, the higher the price the animal fetches abroad," says Guy Richardson, director in Africa of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.
Smugglers use many tricks to sneak animals through airports. They stuff live birds into tennis-ball cans and snakes into film containers. Some smugglers tape live lizards to their chests; one crammed marmosets (small monkeys) into his fanny pack and pockets!
For every smuggled pet sold, several may have died during the rough journey. In 1990 wildlife inspectors in Bangkok, Thailand, found six baby orangutans wedged into crates. Said a Thai wildlife expert: "We had never seen animals in such dreadful conditions."
Where The Wild Things Belong
Smuggling not only hurts precious creatures, it also hurts the habitats they leave behind. In an ecosystem, animals depend on one another to maintain a healthy balance. If all white-nosed monkeys disappeared from an area in Africa, for example, leopards
would need to find something else to prey on, and plants that the
monkeys eat would grow out of control.
Clark's agency is cracking down on the criminals. In 1993 an agent even dressed up as an ape to catch a smuggler. (It worked!) Recently the FWS caught several groups of reptile and bird dealers.
Other countries are also working harder at catching and punishing poachers, traders and smugglers. But these thieves keep learning new tricks. Once a rare animal is in a pet store, it's hard to track down its smuggler.
Many pet stores promise not to sell stolen pets. "We don't sell anything illegal here," says Kevin Stoltz of New York City's Village Rainforest. "We'd get in big trouble." But some shops keep rare pets hidden in a back room. Others may not know they are selling stolen pets.
Even when it is perfectly legal to sell a tortoise, monkey or macaw, experts hate to see such creatures in a cage. "Every shipment I see breaks my heart," says FWS senior agent Jorge Picon. "These animals belong in the wild."
Hot Spots For Hot Pets
This map, above, shows countries where large numbers of rare animals are
stolen and sold by smugglers.
PRIMATES, including marmosets, chimpanzees and black howler monkeys
REPTILES, including iguanas, chameleons, pythons and radiated tortoises
BIRDS, including scarlet macaws, palm cockatoos and yellow-headed parrots
Wild Animals As Pets?
Lime-green iguanas, gentle chimps, neon-bright macaws--exotic animals fascinate us. Certain wild species are perfectly legal to own as pets, but some people say that no wild animals should be taken from their natural habitats.