There’s a price on anything that walks, creeps, crawls, or flies, as a South African nature cop explains.
Some hobbyists collect vintage radios. Others hoard antique furniture, or stamps, or art, or war memorabilia. The list of the world’s collectibles is long, but it doesn’t end with inanimate objects.
Dwarf snakes, dragon-like lizards, endemic alpine beetles, tortoises, orchids—to the wildlife collector, such curiosities from the plant and animal kingdoms are worth more than their weight in gold.
One place replete with unique and rare irresistibles of nature is South Africa’s mountainous Western Cape Province—a world biodiversity hotspot called the Cape Floral Kingdom.
Earlier this year, a Spanish husband and wife team, Jose Maria Aurell Cardona and Maria Jose Gonzalez, were arrested in the Knersvlakte Nature Reserve north of Cape Town in possession of succulents without the relevant permits.
No comments:
Post a Comment