Among the many many inhabitants of Southeast Asia’s dense rainforests are hornbills — a gaggle of birds that stand out with their raucous name, massive, ostentatious beak and colourful feathers. Indonesia harbors 13 species, probably the most of any nation in Asia, three of that are discovered nowhere else.
Hornbills are quickly shedding their houses as massive swaths of Indonesian forests are reduce down to make means for plantations, mining, dams, cities and different growth, or are scorched by wildfires.
Commerce in these birds additionally poses one other critical risk. A whole lot of hornbills are getting into the unlawful commerce in Indonesia, based on a brand new examine printed within the journal Wild, a few of that are provided on the market on-line. They’re bought alive as pets or killed for his or her casques, the ivory-like appendages above their beaks, and their taxidermied heads, that are displayed as dwelling décor.
To know the scope of this commerce, researchers analyzed police and customs confiscation knowledge and surveyed on-line adverts from 2015 to 2025. They realized that this unlawful commerce is widespread and includes each Indonesian hornbill species and a few from Africa and the Philippines as nicely. Most birds had been bought alive, suggesting they’re purchased as pets. Fb was the popular on-line market.
“The dimensions of the hornbill commerce in Indonesia might be larger now than I’ve seen it prior to now,” stated examine writer and wildlife commerce researcher Chris Shepherd from the U.S.-based Middle for Organic Variety. “It’s turning into, maybe, trendier to maintain hornbills.”
Indonesia is notorious for its songbird commerce, which has brought about what scientists dubbed the “Asian songbird disaster.” Annually, thousands and thousands of songbirds, price billions of {dollars}, are caught within the wild and bought in hen markets. They’re stored as pets or pressured to compete in singing competitions. The commerce has emptied the forests and pushed many hen species to near-extinction.
Like many songbirds, all hornbill species are protected beneath Indonesia’s legal guidelines, making it unlawful to hunt, preserve, purchase, promote or transport the birds. Whereas the songbird commerce is extensively studied, there’s little knowledge on hornbills. The brand new examine sheds some mild on this illicit exercise.
Chook commerce researcher Simon Bruslund from the Copenhagen Zoo stated this examine “could be very related” to understanding the focused commerce in hornbills. “There appears to be a rising regional marketplace for holding nonnative hornbills in Asia, notably with Philippine species in Indonesia and Indonesian species in India,” stated Bruslund, who wasn’t an writer on the examine however helped establish the species bought on-line.
A worrying development in commerce, on-line and offline
Seizure data revealed 126 incidents involving about 556 hornbills from 14 species, together with the rufous hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax), also referred to as the Philippine hornbill, which is endemic to that nation. Almost half of the seizures, involving some 222 birds, had been traded alive, doubtless supposed for the pet commerce. Components of useless birds are additionally fashionable, together with beaks and heads.
“The rising demand for hornbill heads as a ornament is a bit bit surprising and complicated,” Shepherd stated. “We’ve seen this in Africa immediately skyrocket, and though it isn’t to the identical scale in Southeast Asia, we’re seeing extra heads right here.”
In 2025, researchers referred to as for commerce protections for African forest hornbills after they discovered greater than 2,000 dried heads imported into the U.S. between 1999 and 2024. These protections had been granted later that 12 months beneath CITES, the worldwide conference to manage the commerce in threatened wild crops and animals. Authorized international commerce requires permits; birds that had been seized by officers and recorded within the examine had been illegally traded.
The critically endangered helmeted hornbill (Rhinoplax vigil) topped the listing of traded species, with 80 birds present in 13 incidents. Their casques are carved into ornamental objects, similar to ivory. The unrelenting demand for casques, primarily from China, drove this distinctive hen from near-threatened standing in 2015 to critically endangered simply three years later.
The wreathed hornbill (Rhyticeros undulatus), a weak species discovered throughout Southeast and South Asia, was additionally in excessive demand: Officers discovered 72 of the birds in 26 incidents. Different extensively traded species embrace the knobbed hornbill (Rhyticeros cassidix) and rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros).
About two-thirds of the seizures concerned different wildlife: stay birds of prey, cockatoos, gibbons, and physique components from pangolins, bears, tigers and snakes.
Greater than 100 folks had been prosecuted for hornbill trafficking, based on the examine. They confronted jail sentences from a month to 4 years, and fines starting from 500,000 to 100 million rupiah ($27.50 to $5,500 at present alternate charges).
The examine additionally make clear trafficking routes. East Java and Jakarta, two of the nation’s most important inhabitants facilities, had been probably the most distinguished locations for smuggled hornbills, whereas the largely forested island of Sulawesi was a serious supply. The worldwide commerce concerned at the least seven nations, with China being probably the most distinguished vacation spot.
This evaluation is probably going an underestimate, the researchers say, as a result of seizures characterize only a sliver of unlawful commerce and the information excluded all instances that didn’t go to court docket.
Chicks and younger birds dominate on-line commerce
Whereas investigating the web commerce, the researchers recorded 231 posts promoting hornbills from Indonesia. They documented 560 birds belonging to 16 species on the market, together with one from Africa; the wreathed hornbill was the preferred. One advertiser on Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest on-line market, claimed to have a inventory of 1,000 hornbills. One other stated they’d 100.
Ninety p.c of sellers posted on Fb, a platform most popular by wildlife traffickers, based on quite a few studies and investigations. The very best on-line value was 42.5 million rupiah ($2,340) for the western long-tailed hornbill (Horizocerus albocristatus), endemic to West Africa.
“Numerous the hornbill commerce has gone on-line, particularly on Fb,” Shepherd stated. “There are Fb teams devoted to hornbill collectors and hornbill merchants, and so they have lots of members.”
These teams, he stated, join patrons and sellers — and encourage extra patrons. “You is likely to be thinking about hornbills, however by no means in one million years assume you’re going to personal one. And you then get into considered one of these teams and, nicely, they’ll ship to your own home.”
Not less than half of those adverts, the examine discovered, featured hornbill chicks or juveniles. The researchers say they’re doubtless caught within the wild as a result of breeding hornbills in captivity is extraordinarily difficult.
Within the wild, the feminine and her chick nest in a hole tree cavity that’s sheltered from the surface. The male hen repeatedly delivers meals by way of a small slit. To grab these birds, poachers “have positioned the nest and climbed up and smashed by way of the barrier and brought the chicks out,” Shepherd stated.
Even when poachers get the chicks, elevating them is a problem. “The younger birds usually want intensive care,” Bruslund from Copenhagen Zoo stated, including that actors from overseas doubtless fee poachers to seize uncommon hornbill species.
Conservationists name for actions
These birds play a significant ecological position as seed dispersers within the landscapes they inhabit. “Hornbills are extremely essential for reforestation — they eat large fruits and poop out large seeds,” Shepherd stated. “They regenerate the forest … in ways in which different species can’t.”
As their habitats vanish, commerce is threatening the way forward for these heavy-beaked birds. “Hornbills happen in low densities and reproduce very slowly, and sometimes solely happen in lowland rainforests, that are beneath explicit stress,” Bruslund stated. Since most species elevate only one chick a 12 months, they’ll’t simply bounce again from sharp inhabitants declines.
“With further threats of trapping and searching, populations are very weak,” Bruslund stated.
Most Southeast Asian hornbills are protected beneath CITES, which requires permits for cross-border commerce. However the African and Philippine species provided on the market on-line didn’t seem to have any paperwork, the researchers stated, which violates worldwide legal guidelines. Commerce in all Indonesian species is outlawed by the nation’s rules.
Whereas some birds are stumbled upon by hunters, others are actively sought. “Hornbills are within the combine between opportunistic and focused commerce,” Bruslund stated. “It’s the focused commerce which is being enabled by social media markets I’m most nervous about.”
The researchers urged Indonesian authorities to research the quite a few hen markets unfold throughout the nation, implement nationwide legal guidelines and strengthen rules to handle the unlawful commerce.
“Indonesia actually wants to shut the hen markets, that are largely stuffed with illegally sourced birds,” Shepherd stated. “Sellers in these markets are fairly often concerned in buying and selling hornbills, and these folks have to be investigated. In the event that they’re discovered with hornbills, authorized motion must be taken towards them.”
He additionally stated corruption at airports could facilitate the trafficking of those noisy birds. “Shifting massive animals like that usually depends on a wholesome dose of corruption,” Shepherd stated. “Airports have the perfect safety methods you may think about. How come you may take a stay hornbill by way of them? [They] have to be investigated and monitored, and there must be an important improve in vigilance in airports.”
On-line platforms, together with Fb, have insurance policies meant to ban shopping for or promoting animals and their components, however these are not often enforced, as evidenced by quite a few studies. Whereas the platform has been conscious of ongoing commerce in wildlife and threatened species, it has executed little to handle it, Shepherd stated. In the meantime, shutting down teams and accounts is simply a minor “trouble” for traffickers, he stated, as they merely launch a brand new group or create a brand new account.
“The birds nonetheless are in anyone’s palms, and should you shut down the Fb teams, [traffickers] are going to maneuver to WhatsApp or one thing else,” Shepherd stated.
Nonetheless, he added, “In the event you arrest and put [them] in jail for promoting hornbills illegally, that turns into greater than a trouble and an actual deterrent.”
Citations:
Gomez, L., Leupen, B. T. C., Rachmayuningtyas, B., Sari, D. R., & Shepherd, C. R. (2026). The unlawful exploitation of hornbills in Indonesia with worldwide trafficking hyperlinks to Africa and Asia. Wild, 3(2), 19. doi:10.3390/wild3020019
Lees, A. C., & Yuda, P. (2022). The Asian songbird disaster. Present Biology, 32(20), R1063-R1064. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.066
This article by Spoorthy Raman was first printed by Mongabay on 9 June 2026. Lead Picture: The wreathed hornbill, discovered throughout South and Southeast Asia, was prominently represented within the seizures. Picture by Nick Volpe by way of iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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