Macaws are native to the Amazon rainforest region of Brazil. Image courtesy of the National Geographic website
Macaws are large, colorful parrots with colorful feathers that are as beautiful as a rainbow. The average body length is around 90-100 cm. They have a high IQ, are super imitative, and have an average lifespan of 65 years. Because of their popularity, macaws have long been the target of smuggling by outlaws. According to National Geographic magazine, as the crackdown intensifies, smugglers are now taking a called "egg washing" to evade the crackdown. Nowadays, "egg washing" activities are very rampant in Europe.
Thought it was smuggling drugs, but it turned out to be "washing eggs"
One day in 2010, customs workers at Zurich Airport in Switzerland spotted a suspicious-looking male passenger flying from Brazil. Because the male passenger was walking in a very strange posture, customs officers suspected that he might have smuggled drugs, so they stopped him and examined him.
Sure enough, customs officers found 25 mysterious items wrapped in tape from inside his underwear. Unexpectedly, however, none of them are drugs, but bird eggs of wild parrots native to the Amazon rainforest. The wild parrots' eggs were tied to the man's lower abdomen and arrived in Switzerland after an 11-hour flight.
Similar things happen at airports elsewhere in Europe. In order to evade the restrictions of the Washington Convention that regulates the wildlife trade, these people do not smuggle wild birds, but steal the eggs and ship them to Europe before hatching. In Europe, birds hatched in captivity are legally permitted to be bought and sold.
Like "money laundering," this practice of smuggling eggs from wild birds is known as "egg washing."
Macaws are sought after, up to or as high as tens of thousands of euros
The man arrested at Zurich Airport is understood to have confessed to another of his accomplices in Switzerland. The accomplice lives in the mountains and has some other precious birds in the house. Bruno Mainini, deputy director of the Swiss Federal Veterinary Service, has spotted hundreds of rare wild birds in his home. What caught the search officer's attention were several of them, known as the "King of parrots."
Sought after by bird-loving players, macaws were once overfished by humans to the point of near extinction. In the 10 years until the 1990s, about 10,000 macaws were captured as pets, resulting in fewer than 1,500 in the wild worldwide. Later, wild macaws were banned from trade because they were protected by international treaties such as the Washington Convention. But captive macaws can be traded for at least 8,000 euros, and the most expensive ones can even be as high as tens of thousands of euros.
However, captive macaws are extremely incapable of breeding, so smuggling macaw eggs is rampant. Experts such as Bruno Maiini said: "There are no records everywhere at present showing the number of macaws raised in captivity, the number of successful breeding. Due to low reproductive capacity, the market demand for macaws is much greater than production. ”
It is difficult to completely eliminate the "egg washing" behavior
Haralrudo Garretson, a prosecutor at the Dutch Food and Production Agency (VWA), told National Geographic: "Smuggling bird eggs is much simpler than smuggling live birds. Bird eggs are relatively small and easy to carry. If smugglers feel that there is a risk of detection, they are also well handled in advance, so that they can easily evade inspection. Therefore, there are many things that smuggle wild bird eggs. ”
Garrettsen also said: "It is very difficult to completely eliminate this kind of 'egg washing' behavior. Many European countries are not very concerned about wildlife smuggling, and as for this kind of 'egg washing', law enforcement agencies basically do not pay special attention to it. ”
According to National Geographic, Portugal is often the country of choice for these "egg washer" smugglers. After being transported to Europe, smugglers send the eggs to legal institutions for incubation, and the hatched birds are placed with a mini metal plate indicating the brand and pedigree of the bird. These birds can then be legally traded worldwide.
The only way to identify whether these transactions are illegal is through DNA identification. In the above-mentioned Swiss case, investigators pulled down the feathers of adult and young birds and sent them to the institute for examination, and found that 3 macaws belonged to the wild and 4 belonged to the designated conservation objects, and the price of these young birds exceeded 80,000 euros.
There are also mafia involved in the "egg washing" operation
It is understood that in 2016, Australia also seized a case of wild bird smuggling. Investigators eventually found more than 80 wild birds designated for protection, including macaws, at a warehouse outside the Austrian capital Viana. As the investigation continued to deepen, the behavior of "washing eggs" was also discovered. Andrés Pochihaka, who led the investigation, said: "It is very rare to have a mafia involved. ”
Traffic, a civil society group dedicated to monitoring the illegal trade in wildlife, said Belunarud Orpheus von Hale, former head of its South American division: "Europe is their main destination for 'egg washing' and a major stronghold. They have long-term breeding and breeding experience. ”
According to Hale's investigation, from 2003 to 2015, a total of 11 cases of smuggling bird eggs from South America to Europe were seized, and 358 bird eggs were seized. Most of these are transiting through Portugal. Macaws are a very rare bird that is popular in Europe as a pet.
The International Animal Welfare Fund, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., conducted a six-week survey of endangered species sales advertisements in Germany, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, etc., and found a total of 2881 sales advertisements for birds designated for protection. Of these, 15 ads were about macaws. Tania Macrea Steele, head of the fund, said: "Almost all birds have certificates, so it is difficult to distinguish whether it is legal or not. ”
Wildlife conservationist Daniel Johnny said: "The number of wild macaws increased twice from 1990 to 2000 as a result of the elimination of the live trade. There are now about 4,300 of them. However, if the 'egg washing' is not effectively curbed, it will still cause great harm to the macaw. In Brazil in particular, smuggling bird eggs has become a major source of livelihood for some local people. Even if they are discovered, they are often punished with a fine. Therefore, it is very difficult to ban it. ”
Red Star News reporter Luo Tian compiled the report
Edited by Zhang Xun
