Large cache of smuggled exotic animals seized in Philippines
Wildlife officers said on Wednesday they had seized almost 100 exotic animals and birds including cockatoos, echidnas and wallabies that had been smuggled into the Philippines for sale to wealthy collectors.
The cache, hidden in small containers in a van, was made up of wildlife from Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, said Eric Gallego, spokesman for the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
There must have been an order from a rich person in Manila for the animals as collector’s items
They included yellow-crested cockatoos and long-beaked echidnas, two species listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
They also included four wallabies from Australia and about 90 exotic parrots from Indonesia, said Gallego.
Several of the birds or animals had died, possibly from the stress of long travel in harsh conditions, he said.
Law enforcers acting on a tip stopped a van with the wildlife and two attendants in the southern city of Surigao on Mindanao island on Saturday, just as the vehicle was about to board a ship heading north.