Endangered Animal Species for Trafficking

Poor peasants and indigenous tribes people know that catching animals and selling them to dealers is illegal. But crushing poverty means they often have no other means of making a living.

Endangered Animal Species for Trafficking Correspondent: Our next stop is the Amazon where we catch up once again with Ricardo. Ricardo has been traveling deep into the jungle for two days the is now on the – river. Suspect that some indigenous tribes are catching wild animals to order for wealthy buyers. Ricardo hopes to prove this theory. We have come to -- the home of the – tribe we are posing as biologists. Like so many hundreds of tribes here – numbers have fallen dramatically over the last century. There are now just over 100 left. As the tribe gets to know us I’m allowed to wonder around and film. Throughout the village animals like this capuchin monkey are joined to posts. This forest rodent an – and this spider monkey are enabled to move because of their chains. This rare scarlet macaw is worth thousands to foreign collectors. Ricardo is painted in traditional berry juices as he tries to find out who these animals are for. The tribe depends on passing river trade to survive but do they sell the animals. This Harpei eagle is on the critically endangered list with a wing span of over 2 meters it can fetch at least $10 in the European union the largest importer of wild caught birds. It’s being held in a cage just over a meter in diameter. We have so many questions that we have to ask but we cannot stay too long without raising suspicions but Ricardo is sure he is on to something a bush dog also endangered looks on as we go. Ricardo: The only thing that we know for sure is that these animals are getting to the big cities and they come from here. Wealthy buyers are paying these communities to fish for them. They leave foxes and fish food behind then return a few days later to collect what has been fished and take it to the big markets and I think that any animals that have been caught are taken at the same time usually as part of an order.