KAMPALA, Uganda – An Uganda Wildlife Authority official says more than 270 African gray parrots have been seized from smugglers in the past month, which suggests there is a syndicate illegally exporting Ugandan wildlife.
Johnson Masereka said Tuesday that authorities seized 140 parrots in a weekend raid on a wildlife export firm's warehouse near Entebbe, the East African nation's main airport. Masereka says the firm did not have documents to legally export the birds. No one was arrested.
This is less than two weeks after 132 parrots were seized as they were being smuggled across the border to Congo.
Masereka says smugglers usually try to export two to three parrots at a time, never more than 100 at once. He says African gray parrots can fetch around $1,500 in Europe.