Yellow-crested cockatoos found stuffed into plastic bottles by smugglers
A smuggler stuffed these rare Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoos inside plastic water bottles. (Supplied) Supplied
Wriggling helplessly inside 1.5-litre plastic bottles, two dozen critically-endangered, yellow-crested cockatoos were packed into travel bags and bound for the black market.
Until Indonesian police intervened and rescued the birds amid attempts to smuggle them out of a port in Surabaya, the country's second-largest city.
Disturbing footage has emerged of the cockatoos inside the bottles, highlighting the cruel reality of bird smuggling, reports Britain's Telegraph news site.
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Officials cut the birds free and they have since received medical attention.
A 37-year-old man was also arrested after allegedly attempting to board a passenger ship with the illicit cargo.
Yellow-crested cockatoos reportedly sell for up to $1200 on the black market.
They were labelled as "critically endangered" in 2007 by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
There are approximately 7000 of the species left, having largely disappeared from their natural habitat due to hunting and poor reproductive rates.
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