A Kenyan court has sentenced four men to one year in prison or pay a fine of $7,700 (£5,800) for trying to smuggle thousands of live ants out of the country.
The four suspects – two Belgians, a Vietnamese and a Kenyan – were arrested last month with 5,000 ants at a guest house in the western town of Naivasha.
They had pleaded guilty to the charges and told the court that they were collecting the highly sought-after ants as a hobby and didn’t think it was illegal.
But delivering the sentence on Wednesday, the court said the particular species of ants collected was valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.
It is believed that the ants were intended for exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia.
The contraband included giant African harvester ants, which are valued by some UK dealers at up to £170 ($220) each.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19, Vietnamese national Duh Hung Nguyen and Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a, were handed similar terms after the magistrate considered their mitigation arguments.
The Belgians were found with 5,000 ants, while Nguyen and Ng’ang’a had 300.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), which is more used to protecting larger creatures, such as lions and elephants, has described this as a “landmark case”.
The case showed a “disturbing shift in trafficking patterns – from iconic mammals to lesser-known species that are vital to ecological balance”, the KWS said last month when the four were arrested.
The Belgian teens had entered Kenya on a tourist visa and were staying in Naivasha, a town popular with tourists for its animal parks and lakes.
The KWS said the demand for rare insect species was growing.
In Kenya, the ants are protected by international bio-diversity treaties and their trade is highly regulated.
