Photo Gallery: Exotic Animals Rescued at L.A. Airport

Photo Gallery: Exotic Animals Rescued at L.A. Airport
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July 26, 2007—Smugglers often resort to extreme measures to bring illegal animals into the United States.

These two lesser slow lorises, a type of monkey, were discovered in a man's underwear at the Los Angeles Airport in 2002. And when authorities opened the man's luggage, they were greeted by birds of paradise.

The slow loris, a nocturnal primate that resides in the treetop canopies of South Asian rain forests, is often trapped and sold as a pet.

The United Nations banned all international traffic of the animals, along with several other species, at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species last month.

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—Photograph courtesy Los Angeles U.S. Attorneys Office/U.S. Department of Justice
 

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