How much for a black cockatoo? Up to $30,000 on the illegal market.

The illegal wildlife trade is a mulit-billion dollar industry and although Australia doesn't have the scale of poaching found in Africa or Asia, some species of birds and reptiles are highly sought after.

John Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES), says the trade is Australia is concentrated on a 'pet collector market'.

'The species which are under threat from this trade are the parrots, cockatoos, snakes and lizards'.

Mr Scanlon says animals are mostly trafficked through the post, strapped to a couriers' body or hidden in luggage.

'We have seen reptiles smuggled out in teddy bears and 3000 native ants put in plastic containers.'

He says the trade is two way.

'Australia has records of what goes out illegally and also what comes in illegally and it includes items such as ivory and orang-utan skulls.'

But the trade here is small compared to overseas where it is high volume and trafficking occurs via shipping containers.

'In certain parts of the world we're seeing industrial scale poaching and smuggling being conducted with high profit, well organised transit routes.

'We're confronting serious organised criminal gangs and rebel militia groups in parts of Central Africa like Lord's Resistance Army are tangled up in the ivory trade.

'What we'd like to see is what we see in Australia with the level of penalties, the professional customs and also the community attitude,' Mr Scanlon said.

Kira Husher from the Taronga Conservation Society Australia has been involved in producing the smart phone app called Wildlife Witness.

'This will make it easy for members of the public to be the eyes and ears on the ground watching out for wildlife trade.'

The app allows people to take a photo and document which animal is suspected of being traded and then register a GPS location.

The information is then sent to the global wildlife monitoring network, TRAFFIC.

This is analysed and if needed sent to local law enforcement agencies.

In Australia the app is being targeted to travellers who might see something overseas which they suspect as being illegal.

Kira Husher says it was an Australian business traveller which lead to the Taronga zoo taking custody of a sun bear, Mr Hobbs, from Cambodia.

'He was on a business trip and reported a sun bear in a cage outside a Cambodian restaurant.

'Mr Hobbs was destined to become bear paw soup,' she said.

John Scanlon supports the mobile phone app and hopes it will lead to greater understanding of the problem.

'There's now one billion people travelling per year and they can unwittingly make poor decisions and buy something and not know it's coming from an endangered species and it's driving it to extinction.

'Part of this is raising awareness of tourists as consumers and also using them as the eyes and ears on the ground, Mr Scanlon said.



