Quests for birds of prey

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 12

Quests for birds of prey

By

JOAN HARRISON

in Paris

A hired, chauffeur-driven Mercedes Benz car was intercepted by Custom officers last week on the auto route near Metz, in France, and three hunting falcons removed from the car.

The falcons, two sakers and one peregrine falcon, estimated to be worth between $6OOO and $12,000 a bird, were being transported by four Arab diplomats from Abu Dhabi. The Arabs, whose names were not revealed because of diplomatic privilege, had no documentation to prove that they were the legal owners of the birds, nor any of the official papers needed for their transport or export out of France.

Falcons are protected under a law passed in July, 1976, protecting endangered species. The birds were taken away and put in the care of a protection society pending a case being brought against the diplomats, who' were allowed to drive on to Paris after paying a very heavy fine for illicitly transporting endangered species protected by the Washington convention.

Illegal traffic of falcons destined for the Arab states of the Persian Gulf’has been growing of recent years since the protection laws have been strengthened.

Germans have become some of the biggest suppliers of falcons to the Arab states. Using cave-explor-ing ladders they have been taking falcons’ eggs from protected areas in the French Vosges mountains.

The eggs are passed illegally over the frontier, put into incubators, raised in Germany and then sold at high prices on the falcon black market.

There are two falconry societies in France which group together some 200 or so French hunters who practise the sport legally. Licences cost $lOO and membership of an association, which is obligatory, costs $l5OO. The Arabs, who venerate their hunting falcons and who now have difficulty in getting them, are prepared to pay high prices. The black market value varies around $25,000 for a gyerfalcon hunting bird, $12,000 for a saker, and more than $6OOO for a peregrine falcon. . Copyright, London Observer Service.