Zoo animal theft

[Mr. Zootycoon]

Last years a lot of animals got stolen from Dutch zoos.
Stealing animals isn't completely new, but the scale is.

Januari 2015: 5 golden lion tamarins were stolen from
Apenheul. The monkeys were never found back

Throughout 2015: several zoos including Arcen lost their
squirrel monkeys. In that specific incident, only one monkey was found,
it had probably gone unnoticed and escaped.

September 2015: 34 birds were stolen from Avifauna, many
of which extremely rare and endangered, including hornbills,
Hill myna, macaw and turaco. Someone them were breeding.
Luckely , most endagered hornbills were found back, but in horrible
condition, and atleast one of them, and a great blue turaco, died after
being found.

Januari 2016: the complete colony of bee-eaters was stolen from
BestZoo. The birds were found back but they were starving.

Marth 2016: a pair of black-throated magpie-jays were stolen from the
same zoo.

April 2016: 30 amazon parrots and two male hyacint macaws were stolen
from Zoo Veldhoven.

So you can see it is a real problem and mostly, small monkeys and
birds are victim. What can or should zoos do about this?

 

[Jana]

In Czechs zoos, theft of animals used to be quite common, you would hear about it 1-2 times per year. Mostly tortoises and parrots. But over time, it got better. I can remmember only 1 animal theft within last 4 years here.

What can be done? Security measures. Cameras, movement sensors, trained dogs, night watch.