Did two of the lemurs stolen in Bangladesh end up in India? Officials are investigating

Filed 2h ago · Via Mongabay · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Covert Affair

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Diplomatic Security Service from Washington, D.C., United St · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Three ring-tailed lemurs stolen from Gazipur Safari Park in Bangladesh in March 2025 resurfaced in headlines this September when reports claimed two had been trafficked to Vantara, a private wildlife facility in Gujarat, India. Vantara denied wrongdoing but offered to share DNA profiles for comparison.

Bangladeshi investigators can't confirm the match because the Forest Department never recorded DNA profiles or microchipped the lemurs during their nearly seven years in captivity. One of the three stolen lemurs was recovered after arrests but later died at the park in February.

Officials say even if DNA eventually matches, there's no repatriation protocol between Bangladesh and India for trafficked wildlife, and Bangladesh's own Wildlife Act has no provision addressing poaching from a protected facility like a safari park.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Seven years with the same three lemurs and nobody swabbed a cheek, and now that's the whole bottleneck holding up an international wildlife case. It is the kind of gap that looks small until the day it is the only thing standing between you and an answer. The lemurs, wherever they are, are not waiting around for the paperwork to catch up.

Source: Read the original at Mongabay → Scored: Covert Affair · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0