If they talk to the judge, the guys in Cuilicán are toast! Smuggling wildlife can get you nine years in the slammer in Mexico.
I have a story on this coming out in tomorrow’s (not yet on-line) Mexico City News. These are a few of the 297 baby orange-fronted conures recovered from bird smugglers last week. There’s a story in Spanish (from Noroeste de Cuilicán) by Guadalupe Martinéz which says there were 400+ birds.
Along with losing their parents (bird buyers should know, that’s the way baby parrots get to market), the 297 orphan orange-fronted conures had their wings clipped, and the birds are too young to forage on their own. They need to be hand fed for the next several weeks before they can be released in a nature park near Mazatlán.
Tha amazing — and apparently inexhaustable — Clare Simmons had been up about 15 hours making parrot baby food and feeding the little guys when I took this photo. Conrehabit, A.C. has taken responsiblity for the project, but homemade parrot feed, and their other on-going projects will strain their budget.
