Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #617

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Belgian Teens Arrested With 5,000 Smuggled Ants As Kenya Warns of Changing Trafficking Trends
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By Evelyne Musambi NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thou- sands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authori- ties said was part of a trend in traf- ficking smaller and lesser known species.
Lornoy David and
Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magis- trate in Nairobi and were com- forted in the courtroom by rel- atives. They told the magistrate they were collect- ing the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal.
In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen also were charged with ille- gal trafficking in the same court- room, following their arrest while in possession of 400 ants.
The Kenya Wildlife Service said the four men were involved in trafficking the
ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a dis- tinctive, large and red-colored har- vester ant native to East Africa.
The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sover- eign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecologi- cal and economic benefits,” KWS said in a state- ment.
Kenya has in the past fought against the traf- ficking of body parts of larger species of wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and pangolins among others. But the cases against the four men represent “a shift in trafficking trends — from iconic large mam- mals to lesser-
known yet eco- logically critical species,” KWS said.
The two Belgians were arrested in Kenya’s Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. The 5,000 ants were found in a guest house where they were staying, and were packed in 2,244 test tubes that had been filled with cotton wool to enable the ants to survive for months.
The other two men were arrest- ed in Nairobi where they were found to have 400 ants in their apartments.
Kenyan authori- ties valued the ants at 1 million shillings ($7,700). The prices for ants can vary greatly according to the species and the market.
Philip Muruthi, a
vice president for conservation at the Africa Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi, said ants play the role of enriching soils, enabling germina- tion and providing food for species such as birds.
“The thing is, when you see a healthy forest, like Ngong forest, you don’t think about what is making it healthy. It is the relation- ships all the way from the bacteria to the ants to the bigger things,” he said.
Muruthi warned of the risk of traffick- ing species and exporting dis- eases to the agri- cultural industry of the destination countries.
“Even if there is trade, it should be regulated and nobody should be taking our resources just like that,” he said.
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