Two Belgian teenagers who were found with 5,000 ants in Kenya have been given the choice of serving 12 months in prison or paying a fine of $7,700 (£5,767) for trying to smuggle live queen ants out of the country.
Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.
Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19, were arrested and charged last month after they were found with the ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-coloured harvester ant native to East Africa.
The teenagers claimed in court that they were naive and collecting the ants as a hobby.
However, David’s phone revealed he was a member of a group known as “Ant Gang”, and that he had initially bought 2,500 queens for $200, magistrate Njeri Thuku said in her ruling.
There was no justification for being found with such a large quantity of queen ants, she said.
“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” she said.
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In a separate, but related, case, two other men – a Vietnamese national and a Kenyan – were charged after they were found with more than 400 ants.
All four were accused in two separate cases of trying to smuggle out ants – violating wildlife conservation laws – and appeared before Ms Thuku to be sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty.
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The magistrate said the 5,400 ants would fetch in excess of €800,000 (£680,000) or $900,000 online in Europe, Asia, and parts of North America.
She said Duh Heng Nguyen, from Vietnam, was sent to Nairobi to meet a Kenyan, Dennis Nganga, and collect ants in an elaborate scheme that had “all the hallmarks of illegal wildlife trade and possibly biopiracy”.
Queen ants are valued because they are the only ones capable of laying eggs that grow into worker, soldier and future queen ants, meaning that the illegal trade can jeopardise colonies critical to Kenya’s wildlife ecosystem.
KWS said the ants “were destined for the European and Asian exotic pet trade”.
“Today’s ruling sends an unequivocal message: Kenya will not tolerate the plunder of its biodiversity. Whether it’s an ant or an elephant, we will pursue traffickers relentlessly,” said its director general Erustus Kanga.
