Indian customs officers have arrested a plane passenger after discovering two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked bag, the latest animals seized from smugglers at Mumbai’s airport.
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One of the tiny apes from Indonesia was dead, while the other, in a video shared by Indian Customs, was seen cradled in the arms of an officer, softly hooting before covering its face with its arm.
Customs said the passenger, who had travelled from Malaysia via Thailand, was given the rare apes by a wildlife trafficking “syndicate” for delivery in India.
Officers acting on “specific intelligence” arrested the passenger in Mumbai on Thursday.
“A subsequent search of their checked baggage, a trolley bag, led to the discovery and seizure of two silvery gibbons (Hylobates moloch), one live and one found dead, which were concealed in a basket,” the customs department said.
Wildlife trade monitor Traffic, which battles the smuggling of wild animals and plants, warned in June of a “very troubling” trend in trafficking driven by the exotic pet trade.
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