Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Parrots and Macaws Back at Home

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CARACAS, Aug 23 2004 (IPS) - Nine yellow-crowned parrots (Amazona ochrocephala) and one scarlet macaw (Ara macao), all three months old, were repatriated to Venezuela by authorities from the neighboring island of Curacao, where they had been taken illegally. ''There had been 32 parrots, but more than half died because of the poor conditions in which they were transported. The Curacao officials found them at a port with a load of illegal merchandise coming from our country,'' Alexis Rengifo, head of the wildlife division of Venezuela's Environment Ministry, told Tierramérica.

In Curacao, the birds were quarantined while their return to Venezuela was organized, and they were sent to the Caricuao Zoo in Caracas, where ''they are gradually recovering and under observation,'' zoo director Salvador Boher said.

The authorities are looking for the people responsible for this trafficking of birds and are working to fight this crime in general. Trafficking of tropical animals worldwide is an estimated 500 million dollar business annually.

Venezuela is a party to the 1976 Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).