Endangered primates, 1 alive and 1 dead, found in a checked suitcase at an Indian airport

Indian customs agents arrested a plane passenger after discovering two endangered gibbons stuffed inside a checked suitcase, the latest animals seized from smugglers at Mumbai airport.

One of the small Indonesian animals was dead, while the other, in a video shared by Indian Customs, appeared cradled in the arms of an officer, hooting softly before covering its face with its arm.

Customs said the passenger, who had traveled from Malaysia via Thailand, received the rare animals from a wildlife trafficking “syndicate” for delivery to India. Officers acting on “specific intelligence” arrested the passenger in Mumbai on Thursday.

“A subsequent search of his checked luggage, a suitcase on wheels, led to the discovery and seizure of two silver gibbons (Hylobates moloch), one alive and one dead, which were hidden in a basket,” the customs department said.

The department also said nearly 8 kilograms of hydroponic herb were found hidden in the passenger’s luggage.

Wildlife trade monitor TRAFFIC, which fights smuggling of wild animals and plants, warned in June of a “very worrying” trend in trafficking driven by the exotic pet trade.

More than 7,000 animals, live and dead, have been seized along the air route between Thailand and India in the last three and a half years, he said.

The little silver gibbon’s wild home is the rainforests of Java in Indonesia.

They are threatened by forest loss, hunting and the pet trade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Estimates of the remaining primates range between 2,500 and 4,000.

The seizure follows several recent smuggling raids at the same airport.

Just a week earlier, customs officials said they had arrested another smuggler transporting snakes, turtles and a raccoon.

In June, Mumbai customs intercepted two passengers arriving from Thailand with dozens of poisonous vipers and more than 100 other creatures, including lizards, sunbirds and tree-climbing possums.

In February, customs officials at Mumbai airport detained a smuggler with five Siamang Gibbons, an ape native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Recently, exotic primates have also been smuggled across the US-Mexico border. Jim Stinebaugh, special agent with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, told News themezone That nearly 90 baby spider monkeys have been confiscated at the Texas-Mexico border in the past 18 months, and that is believed to be just a fraction of the spider monkeys brought illegally into the United States.