Kingfisher: this photo by JJ Harrison is a Wikipedia feature, meaning it has been voted one of the most beautiful images on the site (click on imag to view large)
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – A taxidermist who used smuggled animal parts from orangutangs, king cobras and other endangered species including several birds, then sold some of the artwork he created, for up to $80,000 at Art Basel, was sentenced Friday 2 March to two years in prison, in Florida, USA. The federal court judge also ordered him to pay $6,000.
The man, 48-year-old Enrique Gomez De Molina, was also ordered to turn over any remaining wildlife parts that he has.
Art Basel is the Florida spinoff of Basel, Switzerland’s mega art fair. The Florida fair is widely considered to be the world’s top fair for contemporary and modern art.
A regular airport scan spotted animals in a man’s suitcases, but the sheer size and variety of the smuggled wildlife were a daunting haul by any standards. The live creatures the Indonesian was caught with at Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport as he was boarding an Air Asia flight home came from the local Bangkok market, he admitted.
“A man who went on a wildlife shopping spree in Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market was detained by authorities at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport yesterday as he tried to smuggle his haul—that included live snakes, tortoises, squirrels, spiders, lizards and even a parrot—out of the country inside three suitcases,” says the international wildlife group Traffic.
But the complete list is startling and included: 88 Indian Star Tortoises, 33 Elongated Tortoises, seven Radiated Tortoises, six Mata Mata Turtles, four Southeast Asian Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle, three Aldabra Tortoises, one Pig-nosed Turtle “and even one Ploughshare Tortoise—the worlds’ rarest tortoise”, according to Traffic’s press release on the confiscation.
“Alongside these, he packed 34 Ball Pythons, two Boa Constrictors, several Milk Snakes, Corn Snakes and King Snakes as well as a Hog-nosed Snake.”
The full list, according to Traffic, which has a photo showing the man’s “modified” suitcase:
Ploughshare tortoise 1
Ceratophrys ornate (Argentine horned frog) 6
Radiated tortoise 7
Indian Star Tortoise 88
Common squirrel 22
Mata Mata Turtle 6
Bearded Dragon 19
Aldabra Tortoise 3
Theraphosidae (baboon spider) 18
Pig-nosed Turtle 1
Elongated Tortoise 33
African Grey Parrot 1
Ball Python 34
Boa Constrictor 2
Milk Snake 1
Corn Snake 2
King Snake 2
Lampropeltis zonata (kingsnake) 1
Lampropeltis calligasta (kingsnake) 1
Hog nosed snake 1
Spiny-tailed Lizard (Uromastyx ) 4
Sudan Plated Lizard 2
Chitra 4
Milan, Italy (GenevaLunch) – Urgent cleanup work is underway on the Po, Italy’s longest river and a major tributary that is important to industry and agriculture, after a massive amount of fuel and heating oil spilled into it, near Milan. Police are saying a “criminal act” lies behind the spill, with eight storage tanks tampered with at a closed storage facility that belongs to Lombarda Petroli SpA.
The fuel initially went into the Lambro River. Estimates of the amount of fuel spilled vary wildly, with the lowest talking about hundreds of thousands of litres, but a state of emergency has been declared in Lombardy as concerns grow over the potential impact on natural reserves, wildlife and crops.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg/BW, Corriere della Sera (Ita), National Geographic feature on the Po
Schumacher home in Gland
Gland, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Formula 1′s former champion Michael Schumacher, had grandiose ideas about the dock he wants to install at his new lakefront estate on the shores of Lake Geneva in Gland, according to the Tribune de Geneve, quoting Michel Cosendai of the Vaud cantonal water service. The final solution, posted for public consultation until mid-August, will allow docking space two motor boats and the option of an offshore anchor for a sailboat. One group that is likely to oppose the new construction is the Association Rives Publiques, which has been fighting for open public access to the shores of Lake Geneva. According to the Tribune, the group plans to file its opposition.
