Colombia fights wildlife trafficking

BOGOTA, Colombia — The metal doors of a shoebox-size cage open and a bird tagged #811 launches into a giant aviary. The palm-sized finch performs a midair pirouette, lands on a willow branch and curiously twitches its saffron-colored head sideways, as if surprised by its good fortune.

“That’s what it feels like to be free,” said Juan Camilo Panqueba, a veterinarian at a quarantine center in Colombia’s high Andean capital, far from the canary’s natural habitat along the humid, Caribbean coast.

The moment of liberation contrasts with the dreadful conditions in which the finch was found. Three weeks ago, authorities in the capital seized 32 finches in a surprise raid on a cockfighting ring where a high-stakes, booze-filled songbird contest billed as “the clash of titans” on social media was taking place.

While sparring by way of song has been a pastime throughout the Caribbean for centuries, trapping wildlife without a license — even species like these saffron finches, or Sicalis flaveola, which are not threatened — is a crime in Colombia, though one that authorities ignored in a country overrun by drug cartels, leftist guerrillas and other armed groups

Until now.

Taking advantage of a decline in violence, and spurred by a growing awareness of Colombia’s importance as the country with the second highest biodiversity in the world, authorities are going after animal trafficking like never before. Last year, police seized more than 34,600 animals illegally poached from the wild — a 44% increase over 2017. Many were detected by a pack of 16 feather- and skin-sniffing dogs stationed at airports and bus stations.

“Just because it’s a tradition doesn’t make it right,” said Maj. Paula Ortiz, head of a 500-strong police unit that combats environmental crimes.

Prosecutors are also more...