On Sunday 16th March 2008, my wife and I went to Chatuchak Market in Bangkok to do some shopping. I took the opportunity to take a look at the animal section and was appalled to see large numbers of birds, mammals and reptiles being sold illegally. Squirrels were particularly numerous as were reptiles, but it was particularly disturbing to see a significant number of birds that had obviously been trapped in the wild in Thailand being offered for sale.

I managed to secretly take a few photos of the situation there, although the quality is rather poor. For those interested, the list of bird species and numbers seen are listed here: Illegal Wildlife Trade Flourishing at Chatuchak Market.

Unfortunately, wildlife in Thailand comes under a lot of pressure from such activities and they are so widespread that only a few cases are dealt with. The Wildlife Friends of Thailand do a good job of rescuing a number of abused animals; take a look at their website: Wildlife Friends of Thailand.

It seems that all too often I am adding information to pages on thaibirding.com that deal with issues such as wildlife abuse, bird trapping and suchlike: Bird Persecution, Large Numbers of Dead Birds at Muang Boran Fishponds, Roads Through Wilderness Areas Inevitably Lead to Problems, Abuse of Wildlife for Tourists, Mass Trapping of Birds at Chiang Saen.

However, yesterday there was some good news reported in The Daily Xpress. Over 200 rare animals were seized by the police who raided Chatuchak Market on Saturday 21st March, arresting a number of traders in the process. The rescued animals included Slow Lorises, Madagascar Tortoises and many birds.  Although this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the illegal trade in wildlife in Thailand, it is at least a small victory for the police and conservationists.

environment, nature, thailand