JAKARTA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian authorities on Thursday seized nearly 2,000 bird species, many of them critically endangered, in Banten province, a move aiming at preserving the population of the species in the vast-archipelagic country.
Police personnel and officials of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency in Banten's city of Serang confiscated 1,812 birds, 130 of them protected, and arrested the perpetrator, said the agency's senior official Andri Ginson.
The official noted that some 600 out of the total number of the species died during the trafficking.
"The species of the birds are various and some of them are on the brink of extinction," Ginson disclosed.
The official revealed that among the protected birds were great tit with the Latin name of patrus major and blue-winged leafbird or chloropsis cochinensis, he said.
According to the official the birds were poached in Sumatra Island and would be smuggled to Banten's city of Cilegon and Indonesia's capital of Jakarta.
The seized birds which are still alive would be released to the wild nature, said Ginson.
Earlier this month, Indonesian authorities foiled an illegal trade of more than 3,000 birds, many of them protected, from Sumatra Island and to be sent to Java Island, according to the police.
The populations of wild birds in Sumatra Island have been threatened by rampant poaching and smuggling activities. Over one million birds are hunted every year in one of Indonesia's main islands, according to a non-governmental organization dealing with protecting Indonesian birds.
Indonesia is known as the most bird species-rich country as its large rain forest area is home to numerable species spreading over 17,500 islands.
