Smuggler caught with rare birds jammed inside water bottles in Indonesia

Indonesian police have arrested a suspected wildlife smuggler after discovering nearly two dozen rare live birds, mostly yellow-crested cockatoos, jammed inside plastic water bottles in his luggage. The 37-year-old man was stopped by police on Monday as he alighted from a passenger ship in Surabaya, a city on the main island of Java. Photographs show the birds, with distinctive yellow plumage, peering out of the bottles after being found by officers. The bottoms of the bottles had been cut off to squeeze the birds inside.

We found 21 yellow-crested cockatoos and one green parrot. All the birds were found inside water bottles, which were packed in a crate.

Head of the criminal investigation unit at Tanjung Perak port, Aldy Sulaiman

The birds have since been sent to Indonesia’s natural resources conservation office, which deals with wildlife-trafficking cases. If found guilty of smuggling, the man, from near Surabaya, could face up to five years in prison. Yellow-crested cockatoos and considered critically endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Asia-Pacific