Posted by Wes von Papineäu on August 12, 1999 at 20:15:51:
CNN (USA) 12 August 99 Danish police hunt for stolen tadpoles
Copenhagen, Denmark (Reuters): Danish police are scouring the country for 195 rare fire-bellied toad tadpoles stolen from a specialist farm.
"We think the robbers want to sell the tadpoles to pet dealers. You can get huge prices for these animals on the black market," Svendborg police vice-superintendent Boerge Midtgaard told Reuters on Thursday.
Fire-bellied toads, near extinct in Denmark and much of Europe, are an endangered species and protected by Danish and EU law. They can live for up to 14 years.
The missing tadpoles were stolen on Wednesday from a farm in central Denmark run by a biologist who is attempting to maintain the species, Midtgaard said