Syndicates recruit couriers to smuggle wildlife in air passenger luggage and use mail services to directly ship wildlife to destination points soon after capture. Traffickers may use addresses at hotels to avoid having wildlife sent to their homes. When trading wildlife as “legal” goods, traffickers falsify documentation to facilitate import and export of wildlife. Unsurprisingly, most wildlife seizures occur at airports and mail centres and during raids (Wyatt, 2013).

Smugglers disguise live animal shipments in electronics including speakers, deep fryers and rice cookers. Animals may be hidden inside children’s toys, potato chip tubes, powdered drink tins or plastic boxes. They have also been found in socks inside suitcases, in coffee mugs or rolled up in towels or other clothes. Animals are often taped or bound to restrict movement, and can be wrapped in aluminium foil or plastic wrap to evade scanning equipment.

Live animals can also be sent by mail. For example, a smuggler was arrested in September 2018 for attempting to smuggle live native lizards out of Australia to Hong Kong. Eleven parcels containing lizards were found at various Australian Post outlets between August and September 2018.