Uzbek man arriving from New York tries to smuggle a rare parrot

On August 12, a citizen of Uzbekistan, who arrived from New York, tried to import a rare parrot without relevant documents, the press service of the State Committee on Ecology reports.

The committee received a message from the customs service of the Tashkent International Airport named after Islam Karimov. Employees of the Main Directorate for Biodiversity and Protected Natural Areas, together with an employee of the Tashkent city Department for Ecology and Environmental Protection, conducted an operative event to clarify the incident.

“It turned out that a Blue-Yellow Ara (Ara ararauna), which is included in Appendix II of the CITES international convention and, accordingly, falls under the control of international trade in endangered species of wildlife and flora, was caged,” the committee said.

When the parrot owner did not have CITES permits for export and import, which are stipulated by the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the international Convention, there were also no rings on the parrot.

“Taking into account all the circumstances, the parrot was temporarily confiscated from the owner, ringed and handed over to the Tashkent Zoo for temporary preservation. All materials on this case were submitted to court,” the press service said.