They rescue anteater who was on a pole of light in Bogotá

This Sunday, the official fire department of the station in Las Ferias neighborhood in the town of Engativá (Bogotá) reported on the rescue of an anteater that was seen by the community on a power pole.

The animal was on 63C Street with Carrera 70C, there it was rescued and handed over to the Specialized Group for Search and Rescue of Animals in Emergency of the firefighters. There is still no official report about the animal's health, but there were no serious injuries.

It is noteworthy that wild animals are victims of illegal trafficking in Bogotá and in 2021 turtles, parakeets, pumas and sloths were rescued. The balance of recovered fauna is:

- 25 fish 'blue-eyed cuchas'

-1,936 matamata tortugas

-2 morrocoy turtles and a charapa turtle

-A female cougar

-Two parakeets and 1,851 grams of meat and turtle eggs

-More than 2,700 grams of meat, turtle eggs

-50,000 grams of armadillo, chigüiro, ñeque and turtle meat

- 3,493 shark fins

-A sloth bear

- 232 tarantulas, 67 cockroaches and a scorpion

Faced with the increase in animal trafficking, the Bogotá Environment Secretariat indicated that “the Mobile Wildlife Unit travels the streets of our city to rescue wild animals in vulnerable conditions or that have been victims of illegal trafficking.”

In addition, the entity works in conjunction with the Center for the Attention and Assessment of Wild Flora and Fauna, the Environmental and Ecological Police, the District Institute for Animal Protection and Welfare. It also highlighted that during 2021 nearly 400 wild animals and more than 11,000 specimens were recovered, of which 7,058 were individuals alive and 159 dead.

“Bogotá, being the capital of Colombia, has the characteristic of being the epicenter and exit of people and, therefore, has become the obligatory passage for wildlife traffickers. Among the animals that are most marketed are: reptiles, mammals and birds,” said the Secretariat.

It also calls on citizens to refrain from extracting, buying and keeping wild animals as pets and recommends that, in the event of encountering a wild individual, avoid handling it and immediately notify the authorities.

People who want to report a case of wildlife trafficking can contact lines 3174276828, 3183651787 or 3182154047 or email fauna@ambientebogota.gov.co in case of any case of commercialization, possession or emergency involving wildlife wild.

“Timely reporting not only helps to mitigate the impact of illegal trafficking, but it can save the lives of hundreds of species that are kept as pets and removed from their natural environments,” stressed the Ministry of Environment.

With regard to this crime, the Ministry of Environment reported that during 2021 in Colombia 18,636 individuals of fauna and 282,147 of flora were seized, which represented 2325 captures and pointed out that among the most trafficked species of fauna are turtles, matamata, iguanas, babillas, canaries, parrots, blue-yellow macaws, spider monkeys, white-headed and white-headed marmoset monkeys, and flora, palms and guaduas.

It is that, in the country with the Law on Environmental Crimes, trafficking in fauna was enshrined in article 328A, which states that “whoever traffics, acquires, exports or markets without permission from the competent authority or in breach of existing regulations specimens, products or parts of aquatic or wild fauna or species wild aliens, shall incur imprisonment for 60 to 135 months, and a fine of 300 to 40,000 statutory minimum monthly wages in force”.

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