Your fellow travelers at Miami International Airport
November 26th, 2010 by admin
We spent some time today searching through a database of U.S. commercial animal imports compiled by the Sun-Sentinel newspaper (find the database here). The database is a compilation of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service records from 2004 until April 2010.
So far this year, many thousands of snakes, frogs, spiders, turtles, sloths, kinkajous and other animals have arrived at the airport in Miami. Most of these animals will end up in the pet trade. A few shipments stood out:
- 3,000 wild-caught tarantulas were imported from Chile into Miami in January by Strictly Reptiles, a major wholesale reptile dealer operating out of the City of Hollywood.
- 500 boa constrictors arrived in Miami in February from Colombia. The importer was Two Amigos Import & Export, a Miami-based company.
- In March, six King Cobras (one of the deadliest snakes in the world) arrived from Indonesia.
- Also in March, 60 vervet monkeys were imported from the island of St. Kitts by Three Springs Scientific, a company that supplies monkeys to research laboratories.
- 100 Nile monitor lizards arrived in Miami from the African country of Benin. Nile monitors are known for their size (up to 7 feet in length), their sharp teeth and claws, and their aggressive nature. These dangerous reptiles were imported by another South Florida company, Emerald Coral & Reptile, of Hallandale.
- 20 three-banded armadillos who were captured in the wild in Paraguay were imported into Miami in March by the Zoological Wildlife Foundation, a Miami animal exhibitor that ARFF has written about before on this blog (here).