On Wed, 20 Nov 1996, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> Under such a scenario, my suggestion would be to implant every bird with a
> detection device just like those that protect books in some book stores, so
> the legally exported birds could be monitored at any point. The illegal
> birds wouldn't have the chips. But then someone would bribe a minor
> official and get a few thousand chips, or steal them. Oh well....
>
> Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
> Tacoma, WA 98416
> web site: http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html

Dennis,

you've neatly anticipated reality. The chips exist. There is one
implanted in my lab-mate's African Gray Parrot. The very small device is
inserted into the breast muscle by needle, and then when scanned by a
special device, the chip emits a unique coded signal. The chips are
widely used to protect legal cage birds against theft (or to aid in their
recovery if they are stolen). As of yet, no system exists to require
chips in legally imported birds, or in all legal captive birds of
endangered species, but it's certainly plausible that such a system would
help discourage illegal importation.

As to counterfeiting, for a price, I'm sure you can get anything
electronic counterfeited. However, the technology is quite complex, from
what I understand, and the lag time until counterfeiters catch up could be
substantial. The cage bird black market is substantial, but not as big
as, for example, the market for counterfeit credit cards, and even the
credit card counterfeiters take a while to catch up with each new
anti-fraud wrinkle.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu