New | Chinese men fined for catching almost 1,700 protected wild geckos in one night

Six men in Yanling county, Henan province, who together caught almost 1,700 wild geckos, have each been fined 2,000 yuan (HK$2,500) for illegal hunting, Dahe Daily reports.

Another man who was also part of the group in committing the crime is awaiting trial.

Wild geckos, although not listed as animals for conservation, are protected on the mainland because of their economic and scientific research value.

It is a crime to catch more than 20 wild geckos. Capturing more than 100 constitutes an extremely severe offence.

The group of seven had driven up to a village in Zhangqiao town in a minivan late one September night. There, they used home-made traps to catch the geckos, which they planned to sell. But they were caught and the 1,689 geckos that they caught were released back into the wild.

A county court gave the six men lenient sentences because the geckos had been freed.