Inside Florida's alleged flying squirrel smuggling operation

MOST PEOPLE NEVER noticed the flying squirrels in Florida’s woods. Even after hundreds, then thousands, of the small, brown rodents started disappearing, many of their human neighbors didn’t suspect anything was wrong. The squirrels sleep during the day, only emerging from their nests at dusk to glide—not actually fly—from tree to tree, covering up to 160 feet with each leap and executing magnificent loops and turns in pursuit of acorns and hickory nuts. Their chirps, often emitted at frequencies outside the range of human hearing, are easy to miss too.

Yet the flying squirrels were in trouble.

Florida wildlife officials allege that the animals, which number somewhere in the tens of thousands in the state, are being poached from people’s backyards and funneled into the nation’s largest flying squirrel smuggling enterprise. Seized financial documents and maps indicate that as many as 10,000 squirrel traps have been set in the state during the past five years in Florida, where it’s illegal to take them from the wild in almost all circumstances.

At the center of the crime operation, they say, is Rodney Crendell Knox, the 66-year-old owner of Knox Farm, in Bushnell, Florida, a licensed breeding business for alligators, turtles, and flying squirrels. Charged with racketeering, scheming to defraud, dealing in stolen property, and more, Knox is in jail awaiting trial and could face up to 30 years in prison. Through his lawyer, he declined to comment. Five other men, including three who admitted to trapping squirrels and two alleged couriers, were also arrested and are awaiting trial.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/09/florida-flying-squirrels-smuggled-abroad-exotic-pets/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=crm-email::src=ngp::cmp=editorial::add=Animals_20200917&rid=FB26C926963C5C9490D08EC70E179424