Nadine Freischlad/Monga Bay
*As Indonesia cracks down on the illegal wildlife trade, it is struggling to deal with the influx of animals confiscated from traffickers.
*Birds are among the most trafficked creatures. Due to a lack of rehabilitation centers, where they would slowly be prepared for life in the wild, many birds are released prematurely.
*That seems to have been the case with a group of cockatoos that were handed into the state after the infamous “water bottle bust” of 2015, in which a smuggler was caught with 23 yellow-crested cockatoos stuffed into plastic water bottles in his luggage.
In May 2015, a wildlife smuggler was arrested at an Indonesian port. He had attempted to transport nearly two dozen yellow-crested cockatoos, stuffed in plastic water bottles, aboard a passenger ship.
The rare birds in their tiny confinements looked barely alive; their feathers were dirty and sticky. They were likely on their way to local markets or international trade networks, to be sold as pets.
This particular bust drew a lot of attention because it expressed the cruelty of animal trafficking in one striking image. It gave rise to a viral campaign that saw dozens of Indonesians turn in their pet cockatoos to the government. Some of the birds had been kept as pets for decades.
In Indonesia, it is illegal to keep, kill or sell a yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) that has been caught in the wild. And yet, the bird, along with a host of other protected species, is widely trafficked in the country, one of the most biodiverse on Earth.
The outcry over the bottled cockatoos provided some grist for reform. Later that same year, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry spun out its own law enforcement department to increase oversight of the wildlife trade. The ministry also called for the revision of the nation’s law on conservation, which lays out penalties for traffickers. But as the number of cockatoos turned in by their owners climbed into the triple digits, it became glaringly obvious that the influx of birds was not matched by the quality of facilities available to take them in.Of the 23 cockatoos seized in the “water bottle bust,” only five are likely still alive, according to Inge Tielen, the conservation manager at the privately funded Cikananga Wildlife Center, which rehabilitates confiscated animals on the island of Java. “They are now in a zoo, probably for [the rest of] their lives,” she told Mongabay. Cikananga didn’t receive any of the cockatoos from the bust, although it has gotten cockatoos from other cases.
The birds surrendered by their owners didn’t fare much better. Around 200 cockatoos were handed in across the country, according to Dudi Nandika of the Indonesian Parrot Project, an NGO. “The Environment and Forestry Ministry pushed the campaign,” he says. The ministry set up a hotline and drop-off posts for the cockatoos, with the minister, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, announcing they would later be “released into their natural habitats.” Dudi says it was well-intentioned: The government wanted to remind the public that cockatoos are protected and send a clear message that buying and trading wild-caught ones is illegal.
The birds were initially put into the care of zoos and safari parks. Forty-two were eventually released back into the wild, but prematurely, without all the right rehabilitation and medical tests, according to Dudi, who was involved in coordinating efforts to get the birds released.
Tony Sumampau, the director of animal theme park operator Taman Safari Indonesia, remembers receiving 28 cockatoos from that group. Only eight were fit enough to be considered for release. Ideally, he says, they would have been transferred to a rehabilitation center near their natural habitat, where they would have slowly been prepared for life in the wild. But hardly any of these facilities exist in eastern Indonesia, and so the birds were let go without undergoing this process.
First response
The yellow-crested cockatoo is a popular pet. The species is smaller than the more common sulphur-crested cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), making it easier to handle, and it sports cute round marks on its cheeks that matches the color of its crest. Like other parrots, it can learn to dance and imitate human speech.
Not too fast
Some of the cockatoos at Cikananga have improved to the point where they’re fit for release, but following through is more complicated than it sounds.Cockatoos mostly live in eastern Indonesia, on the islands of Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua. To feed the wildlife trade, they are typically smuggled by boat to Surabaya, a major city in eastern Java. From there they are distributed to markets and traders around the island, where demand for songbirds is most concentrated. This makes ports in eastern Java, and other nodes of the trade in Java in general, the place where busts are most likely to occur.