Helmeted Hornbill to be listed as conserved species to save it from hunters

[misskit]

Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation intends listing the Helmeted Hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) as a conserved species to save the rare species from illegal hunting.

Informed sources in the department said that hunters usually start their hunt for the birds during the nestling season, between December and May, to kill the mother birds for their casques, or helmets, and to catch their chicks which are in great demand, especially in China.
Since 2016, the department has managed to arrest five hunters and seized their live Helmeted Hornbills and one carcass.

The Helmeted Hornbill is one of the most unusual hornbills, the only one with a solid casque. However, this is precisely the cause of its downfall. Helmeted Hornbills have been hunted for their casques in Borneo and traded with China for over a thousand years, but in the last nine years, the species has come under new and unprecedented pressure from an exploding demand for their casques, which are in great demand as a materials for carved jewelry and ornaments. The birds are listed in Category 1 of Conserved Species under CITES.

The sources said that the department has been cooperating with the Hornbill Research Foundation of Mahidol University to conduct research on the nesting activities and behavior of the species so that a preventative plan can be worked out to save them.
The department has formed a special patrol unit, called the smart patrol, to monitor the birds at their nesting grounds. It is also drafting a national plan for the management of Helmeted Hornbills.

According to TRAFFIC, a non-profit organization dedicated to monitoring trafficking in wildlife, there were at least 236 online posts offering hornbill products and body parts for sale between last October and April this year.
The products on sale include casques, pendants, rings, bracelets, belt buckles and stuffed hornbills.

https://www.thaipbsworld.com/helmete...-from-hunters/

[harrybarracuda]

Informed sources in the department said that hunters usually start their hunt for the birds during the nestling season, between December and May, to kill the mother birds for their casques, or helmets, and to catch their chicks which are in great demand, especially in China.

Fucking chinkies at it again.

[Luigi]

Helmeted Hornbill

Is it just me, or does anyone else envisage a large dildo?

[Mendip]

How can anyone deliberately target a bird during its nesting season.

It doesn't get much lower than that.

[Neverna]

The Helmeted Hornbill is one of the most unusual hornbills, the only one with a solid casque.

[Neverna]

The bird that's more valuable than ivory



The illegal trade in elephant tusks is well reported, but there's a type of "ivory" that's even more valuable. It comes from the helmeted hornbill - a bird that lives in the rainforests of East Asia and is now under threat, writes Mary Colwell.

It wouldn't be wise to go head to head with a helmeted hornbill. They weigh 3kg and have their own built-in battering ram - a solid lump of keratin (a fibrous protein) extends along the top of the bill and on to the skull. This "casque" can account for as much as 11% of a bird's weight.

In all other species of hornbill - there are more than 60 in Africa and Asia - the casque is hollow, but the helmeted hornbill's is solid. The males use it in head-to-head combat and both sexes use it as a weighted tool to dig out insects from rotting trees.

Helmeted hornbills have a wingspan of up to 2m (6ft 6in), striking white and black feathers and a large patch of bare skin around the throat. They have a reputation for being secretive and wary, though, and you're more likely to hear them than see them.



They have good reason to be shy - thousands are killed each year for their casques, shot by hunters who sell the heads to China.

The casque, for which hunters are willing to risk arrest and imprisonment, is sometimes referred to as "ivory". It's a beautiful material to carve, smooth and silky to the touch, with a golden-yellow hue, coloured by secretions from the preen gland - most birds use their heads to rub protective oils from this gland over their feathers, legs and feet.

For hundreds of years it was highly desired by Chinese craftsmen who made artefacts for the rich and powerful, and by Japanese netsuke carvers who made intricate figures for the cords on men's kimonos. Many of these objects made their way to Victorian cabinets in the UK when netsuke collecting became fashionable in the 19th Century.



https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34504217

[harrybarracuda]

Is it just me, or does anyone else envisage a large dildo?

It's just you. You're fucking warped you are.

[misskit]

Better protection sought for Thailand’s helmeted hornbill

BANGKOK (AP) — Time is running out for Thailand’s dwindling population of helmeted hornbills thanks to poaching of the exotic birds for the ivory-like casques atop their big red and yellow beaks.

The species, known by the scientific name Rhinoplax vigil, is listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.


“Currently, there are fewer than 100 of the birds in Thailand’s forests,” says Dr. Kaset Sutacha, chairman of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand and head of the Exotic Pet and Wildlife Clinic at Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Bangkok.


“Critically endangered” is just a step away from “extinct in the wild” and two steps from becoming considered “extinct.”

Demand from China is helping drive demand for their distinctive casques, “helmets” in French, which males deploy in battle. The material is used to make rings, pendants and other decorative items.


Worries over the species’ survival intensified after the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC recently posted photos online of dozens of skulls of the endangered avian for sale.

A campaign on the change.org online petition site is pressuring the government to add the bird to Thailand’s Wildlife Preservation List as soon as possible. It now lists 19 other species.


The bird is already on Thailand’s official list of protected animals, but would get much better protection if it’s included in the Wildlife Preservation List, Kaset said.


That “means we can get money, officers and tools from the government, including a national conservation plan designed just for this species,” he said.

The population of the bird, found in Indonesia, Malaysia and parts of Myanmar and southern Thailand, is dwindling, the IUCN says.


Most types of hornbills have hollow casques. The helmeted hornbills’ are a hard, solid block that in the illegal wildlife market is called “red ivory.”


The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency says black market prices are up to five times higher than for elephant tusks.

China appears to be the main market for helmeted hornbill parts and products, though there is also demand in Laos and Thailand, says Elizabeth John, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia’s senior communications officer.


TRAFFIC has spotted at least 546 hornbill parts, mostly casques of helmeted hornbills, for sale on Thai Facebook groups in the past five years.


The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand has seen the number of helmeted hornbills depleted over the past 40 years by deforestation and climate change.


“If we let the poaching goes on, it will wipe out the entire species in Thailand in no time,” Kaset said.

Preeda Tiansongrasamee, a researcher who has lived in Budo-Sungai Padi National Park in the Budo range in Narathiwat province for 20 years, said hunters traditionally sought helmeted hornbills’ casques and heads because they were thought to bring good luck.


“In the past, we could see heads of the bird in homes and people wore amulets made from casques,” he said by phone.

“That belief has faded away, but a new group of poachers has emerged who hunt the bird to cater to demand from outside Thailand.”


Traders will pay villagers 5,000-6,000 baht ($165-$200) for a hornbill head, Preeda said he was told. Prices are double or triple that in cities and increase exponentially when sold overseas.

Preeda walks through the forest every day to check on the hornbills.


“Right now, there are two nests that have baby birds inside. We have to pray that the male will be safe and bring back food every day,” he says. “Otherwise, the mother and its babies will die.”


Local loggers tend to heed appeals not to cut down trees with hornbill nests, but poachers from elsewhere tend not to listen and sometimes threaten people who try to stop them, Preeda said.


A longstanding Muslim insurgency has complicated efforts to save the birds, since the rebels sometimes target forest rangers they consider to be on the side of the government, their enemy.


The bird is so imperiled it’s likely to be added to the Wildlife Preservation List, said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a respected government consultant on conservation and development.


Last year, Thon got four species added to the list.

But implementing a conservation plan doesn’t guarantee the species will survive, he said.


“It’s not only the animals that we have to take care of. The people who live in the area should be looked after as well,” says Thon.


“They have to survive and have a better life if they are to refrain from cutting trees, and poaching. Without cooperation from people, no conservation plan will last long.”

• https://www.thaipbsworld.com/better-...eted-hornbill/