Beetle smugglers caught Down Under

News from Oz:

They were rudely wrenched from their hiding places and packed into cereal boxes as part of an elaborate smuggling operation.
But now 600 of Australia's rarest beetles are back in clover again on their island home off the NSW coast.

National Parks and Wildlife Service officers spent yesterday returning scores of stolen stag-beetles to their rotten log homes on Lord Howe Island.

The fragile beetles, which sell for up to $10,000 on the Asian pet market, were part of a shipment of 1000 specimens seized by customs officials at Sydney Airport last Sunday.

About 400 beetles were dead by the time customs officers discovered the haul, which was allegedly being smuggled out of the country by two Japanese men.

With the species under threat, wildlife officials faced a battle against the clock to get the surviving beetles back home to Lord Howe to continue their brief three-month reproduction cycle.

Posted by David on January 4, 2003 2:22 PM