In France, a vast trafficking of African animal skulls discovered by French customs. 718 skulls, including 392 from protected primates, were seized between May and December 2022 by agents at Roissy airport in Paris. These coins were in postal packages sent from the continent. They were intended for American collectors.
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It all begins on May 2, 2022. That day, Roissy customs officers discovered seven primate skulls in postal packages coming from Africa. This is just the beginning. In the space of seven months, airport agents will intercept 718 animal skulls, almost half of which were protected primates.
Specimens of the Cercopithecus family have thus been discovered, such as the skulls of Cameroonian red colobus, mandrills but also chimpanzees, skulls which come mainly from Cameroon. However, these are primates protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers in particular that the red colobus of Cameroon is in “ critically endangered “. The circulation of such specimens therefore requires a specific permit, an authorization which did not appear in the controlled packages.
“ The sale of these skulls is a traffic of opportunity “, estimates Fabrice Gayet, expert in wildlife trafficking because “ these primates are first hunted for their meat “. According to him, the resale prices of these skulls can rise up to 1,000 euros each for those of chimpanzees. The skulls seized in this case will now go to the Natural History Museum of Aix-en-Provence to be studied.
According to customs, these skulls were intended for American collectors or hunting associations across the Atlantic.