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Douane française / dpa
Customs at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport have seized hundreds of skulls of protected monkey species. The skulls of the monkeys and other animals were mostly in packages from Cameroon, customs said. The recipients were collectors and hunting clubs in the USA who used the skulls as gifts or prizes. Some of the packages also contained whole specimens or forearms with hands, which were destroyed for health reasons. None of the postal items had been subject to a permit required under species protection.
In addition to monkeys, other species such as otters, big cats, monitor lizards or birds of prey would also be smuggled, customs said. Almost every day, customs officers made corresponding discoveries at France's largest airport.
More than 700 monkey and animal skulls seized between May and December 2022 have now been handed over by customs to the Natural History Museum in Aix-en-Provence, which intends to examine and exhibit them. "I am stunned to imagine that our closest relatives, monkeys and apes, are decimated and the rainforests are robbed of their endangered biodiversity for a business that is as stupid as it is outrageous," said the museum's monkey expert, Sabrina Krief.
svs/AFP