Russian court blocks websites illegally selling rare eagle owls

16:28 25/01/2019

MOSCOW, January 25 (RAPSI) – A court in Magadan, a city in Russia’s Far East, has blocked websites selling eagle owls, endangered red-listed species, according to a statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office.  

It has been revealed that four Internet pages contain information on the sale of these rare birds without permission documentation, the statement reads. According to prosecutors, the blocked websites have afforded a chance to buy owls for anyone who feels like it. 

Eagle owls are red-listed birds. The species is protected by the state as highly valued.

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Chester Zoo provides new home for 100 exotic birds rescued from illegal traders

The birds were destined to be sold illegally as pets

Community Contributor

21:00, 21 JUN 2018

Chester Zoo has provided a safe haven for almost 100 exotic birds after they were seized from the illegal wildlife trade.

The birds, from 14 under threat species, have been given a safe new home in the zoo’s habitats.

They were destined to be illegally sold as pets before being seized by customs officials in Europe as part of a collaboration against the trade.

The illegal wildlife trade is the fourth largest international crime in the world, worth around $19 billion annually.

Hundreds of bird species are known to appear in parts of Europe after being taken from the wild in Africa, South America and South East Asia.

The birds at Chester Zoo will now play a crucial role in boosting safety net numbers of each species as part of international breeding programmes, managed by the zoo and the global conservation community.

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Asia’s Harry Potter obsession poses threat to owls

From Indonesia to India, wild birds are being sold as pets to families who want their own Hedwig. Ecologists call for protection to help species survive

Robin McKie

Saturday 12 August 2017 21.44 BSTLast modified on Sunday 13 August 2017 06.43 BST

The Harry Potter phenomenon has broken publishing and cinema box-office records and spawned a series of lucrative theme parks. But wildlife experts are sounding the alarm over a sad downside to JK Rowling’s tales of the troubled young wizard. The illegal trade in owls has jumped in the far east over the past decade and researchers fear it could endanger the survival of these distinctive predators in Asia.

Conservationists say the snowy owl Hedwig – who remains the young wizard’s loyal companion for most of the Harry Potter series – is fuelling global demand for wild-caught birds for use as pets. In 2001, the year in which the first film was released, only a few hundred were sold at Indonesia’s many bird markets. By 2016, the figure had soared to more than 13,000, according to researchers Vincent Nijman and Anna Nekaris of Oxford Brookes University in a paper in Global Ecology and Conservation. At around $10 to $30, the price tag is affordable to most middle-class families.

The issue is of critical concern because the owls being offered for sale are nearly all taken from the wild. “The overall popularity of owls as pets in Indonesia has risen to such an extent that it may imperil the conservation of some of the less abundant species,” Nijman and Nekaris say.

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The grey parrot and the race against Africa’s wildlife extinction

The number of African greys has plunged to 1% of past levels, conservationists warn. But it is just one of a host of animals and plants on the continent whose future will be debated by more than 180 nations in Johannesburg this week

John Vidal

Saturday 24 September 2016 21.44 BST Last modified on Saturday 24 September 2016 22.00 BST 

Perry, a five-year-old African grey parrot, is for sale on a well-known pet trade website for £750. She looks in good condition with her large black bill, red tail and white mask and her owner says she can whistle the tune of Flower of Scotland, does a passable imitation of R2D2 and is “very clever and funny”.

What Perry’s Scottish owner does not tell prospective buyers is that the African grey is close to extinction in the wild largely because of the international pet trade.

Although there have been restrictions on the export of these small and intelligent birds since 2009, dealers pay a pittance for tens of thousands of them to be trapped every year in the rainforests of west and central Africa and smuggled out.

It’s easy to catch them, say researchers from Birdlife, a global grouping of conservation groups. A team of hunters will use decoys or go to the birds’ water and mineral licks in the forests where flocks gather. They then throw nets over them and take dozens at a time.

Once caught they will be smuggled over borders, stuffed in tiny cages and flown illegally to Europe, South Africa, the Middle East and China, where they may fetch up to £1,000 each. All this makes the African grey probably the most highly traded bird in the world, causing their numbers to plummet from Nigeria to Cameroon, and from Ivory Coast to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some conservationists estimate only 1% of their historical numbers remain.

This week moves are afoot that could give hope to the African grey’s future. Nine African states, the European Union and others will ask world governments and EU at the triennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in Johannesburg to give the highest international protection to the bird. But it is far from the only species whose future hangs in the balance and whose fate could be determined at this year’s meeting. The Cites convention, signed by more than 180 countries and the EU, is the best hope the world has of stemming the growth in the £150bn a year wildlife trade and of reversing catastrophic animal and plant losses.

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Warning skies may 'fall silent,' UN calls for end to illegal poaching and trade of migratory birds

10 May 2016 – Millions of migratory birds are being lost each year as a result of illegal killing, taking and trade, United Nations officials warned on World Migratory Bird Day, calling for concerted action to end the threats to migratory birds and urging everyone to step outside and “listen to the birds chirping,” to appreciate how important they are to our planet.

The motives behind these illicit activities are various and the toll that they are taking is incredible – millions of birds are being killed each year – numbers that are totally unsustainable and which alongside other pressures such as habitat loss and climate change are leading to many once common species being at risk of extinction.

The theme of this year's World Day is “…and when the skies fall silent? Stop the Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade!”

Ahead of the Day, the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) announced the creation of the Intergovernmental Task Force on Illegal Killing, Taking and Trade of Migratory Birds in the Mediterranean composed of Governments and the European Commission.

UN organizations such as the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), international environmental treaties, INTERPOL, law enforcement and judiciary organizations, hunting communities and nongovernmental organizations will also be part of the coalition.

World Migratory Bird Day is co-organized by CMS and the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement (AEWA), international treaties administered by UNEP.

“I fully support the global campaign to raise awareness about the threats to migratory birds from habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. “I call for greater international efforts to restore and preserve migratory birds and the network of sites they need to survive as an important part of the environment on which we all depend.”

Perhaps the simplest way to appreciate how important birds' life is to us all, to the planet, to our ecosystem, and to nature is to step outside for a moment, close your eyes and just listen, or look up the skies

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: “During their long journeys, migratory birds run afoul of any number of natural obstacles, from predators to weather. They shouldn't also have to duck the grasping claws of the illegal wildlife trade. Illegal taking and killing of birds threaten not only the survival of bird species, but ecosystems, communities and livelihoods as well. So World Migratory Bird Day is not strictly for the birds; it's to remind us of the part they play for planet and people alike.”

Bird hunting has been traditionally practiced in the Mediterranean for centuries, but the recent surge in illegal activities, such as poaching and trapping, is endangering many threatened species that are already subject to other pressures, such as climate change and habitat loss.

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Inside the Secret Trade That Threatens Rare Birds

Singapore is a major transit hub for trade in threatened birds, especially African grey parrots. 

By Laurel Neme

PUBLISHED APRIL 19, 2016

Singapore plays a key role as a major international transshipment hub for the global aviculture industry, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC. That’s especially true for trade in African grey parrots.

African greys are highly sought-after as pets because they’re so smart and talkative. (Alex, who lived with scientist Irene Pepperberg for 30 years, had a vocabulary of more than a hundred words and a mind-blowing range of cognitive skills beyond.) They’re native to Equatorial Africa, but populations are declining throughout their range. Although millions of African greys have been bred in captivity, demand for wild-caught birds remains high, and they’re especially vulnerable because they roost in large groups and tend to concentrate around water sources or mineral licks.

They’re now so popular that some range countries have proposed that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the body that regulates the global wildlife trade, categorize them as requiring maximum protection.

The new study, published in the journal Oryx, sheds light on the bird trade system. It reveals that Singapore has been a major conduit for birds from Africa and Europe to East Asia and the Middle East and that between 2005 and 2014 the city-state imported 212 bird species listed by CITES as needing protections, with African grey parrots the most intensively traded.

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K-P fails to take steps to control illegal trade

PESHAWAR: 

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) wildlife department has failed to take steps to control the illegal trade of birds and other animals across the province.

Leopard geckos, black scorpions, turtles, tuatara and myna birds are just a few of the animals that are being poached from K-P, they are then being traded illegally not only in the province but throughout the country and some are even being smuggled out of it.

Like in all other provinces, the black scorpion and the gecko have been pushed to extinction by the greed of poachers but it is the province’s birds that are suffering the most at their hands.

The trade is at its peak but arrests and other measures by wildlife officials is limited to vendors who sells myna, parrots and other colourful birds without obtaining licences to do so. “We are poor people and this is the only way we can make a living,” justified Bahadur Khan, who was arrested by wildlife officials for hunting down dozens of Myna birds.

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Prison terms and hefty fines for criminal gang smuggling birds of prey

Black kites linked the UK to a European-wide trade in wild-caught birds with forged papers

Following a lengthy trial at Ghent in Belgium, five people have been convicted of being part of a criminal organisation engaged in forging and falsifying permits and documents required to possess and trade in endangered species and for possessing rare birds of prey, reports the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). 

The investigation by the Belgian Federal Police, which lasted in excess of six years, resulted in enforcement action in five countries, including search warrants being executed in the UK by the police and NWCU. 

The four men and one woman were part of a criminal gang that were acquiring some of the rarest birds of prey from the wild and then passing them off as having been bred in captivity by using falsified and forged permits.

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Man admits to illegally trading rare bird eggs after major RSPB investigation

15 Mar 2013 16:48

THE admitted charges related to eggs of a number of protected or threatened species, including the peregrine falcon, Egyptian Vulture and lesser kestrel.

A MAN has admitted keeping and illegally trading the eggs of some of Europe's rarest birds.

Keith Liddell, 53, of Inverness, admitted a total of 13 charges when he appeared at the city's sheriff court today. He will be sentenced next month.

RSPB Scotland, which confirmed details of the hearing, said the case followed one of the biggest egg trading investigations the charity has been involved in.

Eleven of the admitted charges related to the trading in, or offers to trade in, eggs of a number of protected or threatened species, including the peregrine falcon, Egyptian Vulture and lesser kestrel.

Liddell also pleaded guilty to two other charges of unlawfully possessing a total of 338 eggs, contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

They included a number of Scottish rare breeding birds, such as the Slavonian grebe, black-throated diver and osprey.

The development followed an investigation which began in 2009 when a County Durham man was convicted of similar offences, RSPB Scotland said.

After examining emails and other material from that case, police and the RSPB discovered a network of individuals involved in trading birds eggs over the internet, as far afield as the US and Scandinavia.

Liddell's activities came to light during the investigation and his home was searched by police.

Ian Thomson, head of investigations at RSPB Scotland, said: "This is among the biggest egg trading investigations that RSPB has ever been involved with.

"The illegal and outdated practice of egg collecting can have a devastating impact on the future population of vulnerable or slow breeding species, such as birds of prey and divers."

Liddell will return to court for sentencing on April 9.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/man-admits-illegally-trading-rare-1766284

India’s owls threatened by illegal trade

India's Festival of Lights darkens the future for owls

November 2012. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, is warning of a possible increase in illegal owl trade and owl sacrifices around Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, which this year falls on 13th November.

Owls are sacrificed on auspicious occasions such as Diwali and their body parts used in ceremonial rituals, when Shaman (black magic practitioners also referred to as tantriks) prescribe various uses for owls and their body parts, including the skull, feathers, ear-tuffs, claws, heart, liver, kidney, blood, eyes, fat, beak, tears, eggshells, meat and bones.

The owl is sacred in Indian culture
"It is unfortunate that although many people consider the owl sacred in Indian culture and a vehicle (vahan) of Goddess Lakshmi, superstitions and false beliefs manipulated over the ages have created a demand for owls and their body parts in black magic ceremonies," said TRAFFIC's Abrar Ahmed, an expert on the Indian bird trade.

Large species sought
Although hunting and trade in all Indian owl species is banned under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, hundreds of owls are trapped and traded every year. Owl species most highly sought after by traders are large species, particularly those with false "ear-tufts" (feather extensions on the head), since these are considered to have the greatest magical properties.

In 2010, TRAFFIC released Imperilled Custodians of the Night, a report highlighting the various ways owls or their body parts are used in black magic, street performances, taxidermy, consumption, occult medicines, for capturing other birds and even their eggs used for gambling.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/india-owl.html