 A Baboon
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Oct. 1, 2003 — Dutch customs officials working at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport recently discovered an abandoned, foul-smelling suitcase packed with smuggled baboon noses.
Over 2,000 baboon noses were found in the suitcase when it was inspected on Wednesday, September 3. The suitcase was thought to have come from Lagos, Nigeria, and was destined for the United States.
The owner of the suitcase, who has not yet been identified, had flown from Lagos to Amsterdam, but apparently abandoned the suitcase for fear of being caught with it.
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Dutch customs police turned their gruesome find over to the Agriculture Ministry's Inspection Service, which said it had several leads that may help it track down the perpetrators.
The noses — weighing around 66 pounds — were probably meant to be eaten or used in traditional medicine by immigrants, officials said.
"It is known that many inhabitants of Asian and African countries ascribe beneficial properties to these medicines and use them for that reason," the Inspection Service stated.
Baboons are protected under international law, and their body parts cannot be exported without authorization. They are listed as an endangered species by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.
The noses were all destroyed, according to Louis Steens, a spokesman for the Inspection Service.
"It's not unusual to find animal organs, such as eyes and brains, or plants in baggage from Asia and Africa, whose people use them as ingredients of their traditional medicines for healing purposes," said Mr. Steens.
"We have to prevent something like this from happening again," he declared.
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Name: Olive Baboon (Papio anubis)
Primary Classification: Cercopithecidae (Old World Monkeys and Baboons) Location: Western to eastern Africa. Habitat: Grassland, bush and sparse forest. Diet: Fruit, leaves, insects, lizards and the occasional small mammal. Size: Up to 34 inches in length and 82 lbs in weight. Description: Speckled olive-green fur; dark gray face; thick, gray ruff around cheeks; dark gray rump. Cool Facts: They develop friendships with one another, which is mostly unheard of in animal species. Conservation Status: Not listed by the IUCN. |
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