Vulture chicks and rare bird eggs seized at Heathrow airport

[Jana]

So I´ve seen this article:
Vulture chicks and rare bird eggs seized at Heathrow airport

And I have a question - what is standard way to deal with confiscated endangered animals in the UK/London? Do they transfer them usually to local zoos to look after them? Do they become state owned after they are officially seized? Can European zoos get their hands on them?

And in this case of birds or prey - will they be put under correct surrogate parents or will they be hand-reared and false-imprinted on humans and useless for future breeding? If they are indeed of endangered species, that would be unfortunate to lose their genetics for captive breeding program just due to stupid decision of customs officials.

 

[gentle lemur]

As you say, confiscated animals are sent to an appropriate zoo. I expect that in this case they might be sent to the Hawk Conservancy Trust or a similar organisation. I think that there will have been consultations with various experts and organisations to find somewhere with experience of hand-rearing birds of prey and the capacity to handle work involved.

 

[Kakapo]

Just a facepalm about sensationalist journalism: if the species have not identified yet, how can they said that they're endangered?

 

[bongorob]

Because it is the press, just as any incident involving a train in the UK is described as a commuter train,even if it is a freight train in the dead of night. Thus,any animal story has to include the word endangered.