By Herp News
The endangered Hyacinth Macaw is highly coveted by traffickers and collectors. Photo by Juliana M Ferreira. [dropcap]W[/dropcap]ildlife trafficking transit chains in Latin America are complex, secret, and as varied as the many common and threatened animal species targeted. After poachers illegally pluck wildlife from their habitats, the animals are passed on to middlemen, who move them along clandestine routes before selling them to anonymous consumers at home or abroad. Traffickers involved in the international trade frequently smuggle contraband across poorly secured borders into neighboring countries that lack strong trafficking laws, with the animals, or animal parts, shipped overseas from there. Routes and smuggling techniques shift regularly as traffickers play a cat-and-mouse game with enforcers. When one method is discovered by customs officials — such as sewing tiny tropical parakeets into a garment worn on a plane — smugglers contrive another to move their illegal cargo — maybe using a “mule” or local person to claim a valuable monkey as a “beloved pet” as a means of moving it across a border and into the lucrative pet trade. A parrot vendor offers the camera a big smile. Many local market dealers don’t see wildlife trafficking as wrong, and local authorities seem to agree; police often stroll through markets without making any arrests of illegal traffickers. Photo by The Photographer made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication Comprehensive data on the illegal wildlife trade in Central and South America…
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Read more here: herpetofauna.com
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