Dozens of black-capped lories were rescued from attempted smuggling out of West Papua’s Fakfak regency, authorities say, after a ship crew heard their distinctive chirps.
Last Friday, a ship crew grew suspicious after hearing a chirping coming out from inside big wooden boxes. The ship, named Nggapulu, was docked at Fakfak Port. The crew member then contacted authorities to report the alleged smuggling.
“The ship crew told us that they suspected there were animals inside the box because they heard weird noises,” Fakfak Police’s spokesman Dodik Junaidi said.
Authorities from the Fakfak Police, the local office of Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), and national shipping company Pelni, among others, opened the box and found 74 black-capped lories (Lorius lory) that were stuffed alive inside plastic bottles. Sadly, 10 among them died from suspected suffocation.
It’s not yet known where the birds were supposed to be delivered to, and police have yet to name a suspect. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) warned on their Facebook post that the smuggling of protected wildlife species is subject to a maximum sentence of five years in prison or a fine of IDR100 million (US$7051).
A similar shocking discovery was also made in 2015, when Indonesian police busted an attempt to smuggle live rare yellow-crested cockatoos that were stuffed in water bottles.
The black-capped lory, also known as western black-capped lory or tricolored lory, is a species of parrot widely found in New Guinea, Papua, and adjacent islands. There are seven subspecies and the birds remain widespread and common, though the subspecies L. l. Cyanuchen is the rarest among them. The birds, protected in Indonesia and usually hunted for illegal wildlife trade, are currently listed among species of “least concern” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species despite a trend of population decrease.
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