A singular discovery has reactivated the investigation into the theft of 17 lion tamarin monkeys at the Beauval Zoo, in France, in 2015. One of these primates, which belong to one of the most endangered species in the world, has just been located at the home of a private individual in Slovakia, thanks to its electronic identification.
The news of the meeting was confirmed to the French media France Info by the zoo director, Rodolphe Delord, who expressed bittersweet feelings about the situation: “We are happy to have found him, but since then two families have been forcibly separated. Some have surely died. The one we would like to recover is an animal that is more than 15 years old now, which is already very old.” The French police contacted Delord after receiving confirmation from the French Biodiversity Office that the animal corresponded to one of the stolen specimens.
The animal had also passed through Germany before arriving in Slovakia, where it was identified by the original microchip implanted under your skin. In the words of Delord, “we know that he was ‘laundered’ by a German breeder who gave him a second microchip to make him believe that he had been born in his kennel. Which is false, since the chip of origin proved that he had been born with us.” The manipulation complicated the formal recovery of the animal.
The lengthy bureaucratic process to repatriate the monkey shows the difficulty of these cases, despite being two member countries of the European Union. Regarding this, Delord noted: “We would like to be able to repatriate him to Franceand this has been going on for almost a year. “We couldn’t get it back because the French and Slovak authorities couldn’t agree.”
One of the central arguments for the urgency of repatriating the primate is the critical situation of the species: the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists lion tamarins as an “endangered species” on its specialized portal. Delord highlighted the particular vulnerability of these animals: “They are very fragile monkeys, who live in groups, as families. This species has a strict diet. For us, these animals They have no commercial value. They are not bought or sold: they are exchanged in breeding programs. They may, however, have a high commercial value for unscrupulous traffickers.”
The theft, carried out in May 2015, remained in local memory for its meticulousness: during the night, the thieves covered the surveillance cameras with opaque cloth and stole the monkeys while they slept in easily transportable wooden cages. The gendarmerie investigations were not able to make progress towards the whereabouts of the perpetrators or the victims. missing animalsand two years later, the public prosecutor of the Republic of Blois decreed the dismissal of the file. This judicial act could be reviewed given the recent discovery of the animal identified in Slovakia.
This small primate, whose size is comparable to that of a squirrellives in the Atlantic forest of eastern Brazil, specifically in the forests of the Atlantic coast located southwest of Rio de Janeiro. Currently, the wild population of this species has been reduced to approximately 1,000 copiesto which another 500 are added in captivity.
