In 2024, quarantine authorities in Lampung, Indonesia seized a solitary truck carrying 6,514 birds, believed to be the country’s biggest seizure of an illegal shipment of birds from a single vehicle. Lampung, at the southern tip of Sumatra, is home to some of Indonesia’s busiest ports and a transportation pinch point which has seen repeated seizures over the years. The traffickers used a closed truck concealing its cargo, and routed the shipment through a facility considered an alternative to Lampung’s main Bakauheni sea port. Crammed into 216 boxes, the birds were found in the vehicle in the province’s Bandar Bakau Jaya Port which ferries heavy vehicles crossing the Sunda Strait from Sumatra, where the birds originated, to Java, where bustling bird markets are located. While only 257 of the seized birds were from protected species, this case highlights the continued pressure on Sumatran birds, particularly species currently not protected under Indonesian law, to feed the massive demand.