The gyrfalcons were found in two cartons being loaded into the hold of a plane jump for Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, the group said. The woman who checkered the cartons as her luggage was detained and released pending a court appearance.“At least 100 wild gyrfalcons are smuggled out of Russia each year, first and foremost driven by demand from the growing popularity of falconry in the Middle East,” said IFAW’s Russia director, Masha Vorontsova, in a statement.
The fast and commanding predator is the world's largest falcon. It breeds in arctic and subarctic regions and preys primarily on large birds, according to the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.They can command as much as $50,000 on the black market. Officials suppose the birds seized at Sheremetyevo International Airport were captured in Russia’s Far East and transported through two security checkpoints and a customs inspection before being detected.
The birds are expected to stay alive and will reside at IFAW’s raptor rehabilitation center until they are ready to be released into the wild, likely sometime next month.
