ANIMALS
Man tries to smuggle chameleons in socks
Words by Nicoletta Lanese
It has not yet been identified which species of chameleon the man attempted to smuggle
© Getty
A man attempted to smuggle 74 protected chameleons through an Austrian airport by hiding the animals in socks and empty ice cream containers in his luggage. The man was caught at customs control in Vienna after travelling from Tanzania via Ethiopia. After authorities confiscated the colourful reptiles, the chameleons were taken to Vienna’s Schönbrunn Zoo, but three of the animals sadly did not survive. The zoo identified all of the chameleons as originally being from the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania.