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Informer editor ANDREW PERZO answers readers' questions, provides useful information and points out items of interest.

Illicit wildlife trade a $10 billion-a-year industry

Posted November 20, 2009 at 2:53 pm
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Charles Bergman at Smithsonian magazine writes about illegal wildlife trafficking:

Wildlife trafficking is thought to be the third most valuable illicit commerce in the world, after drugs and weapons, worth an estimated $10 billion a year, according to the U.S. State Department. Birds are the most common contraband; the State Department estimates that two million to five million wild birds, from hummingbirds to parrots to harpy eagles, are traded illegally worldwide every year. Millions of turtles, crocodiles, snakes and other reptiles are also trafficked, as well as mammals and insects.

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