MERIDA Yucatan – Red Climática Ecológica Ambiental México, a community described on Facebook as a protector of animal rights, have accused foreigners of hunting ocellated turkeys, peacocks and other species in the Yucatán, through “Tankab Outfitters” which offers hunting services through their Facebook page.
The Tankab Outfitters page also mentions other types of animals available for hunting in the Yucatan Peninsula such as toucans, deer, jaguars, pumas and other protected species, endemic to the Yucatan Peninsula… (already deleted)
It is worth mentioning that just a few days ago, in Palenque Chiapas, Environmentalist Nora Lopez was murdered for protecting endemic species of birds of the Mexican Southeast.
Tankab’s last publication is dated July 30th of this year (already removed). In a post they shared on July 25, there is a photograph of a woman posing with what seems to be an ocellated turkey, however in their page many other photographs are available showing hunters with their trophies.
The Tankab website has been “suspended” as of today, Saturday morning, August 31st.
In a statement already removed it said:
“Our website has been recently flooding with spam and cyber-attacks by the anti-hunters causing our server to crash. We are addressing the situation in the fastest way possible and looking at different options to improve the security of the website and avoid further attacks,” reads the post. “Sorry for the inconvenience and our team will be getting in touch with you by pm for more information in the meantime. We are ready to take you turkey hunting for the world’s most exotic and beautiful trophy bird!!!” (SIC)
According to ICANN the web page was created in October 2012. Before their website was suspended they describe the hunting experience as follows:
About TANKAB OUTFITTERS
“Tankab Outfitters is a company based in the Yucatan specialized in hunting trips around the different areas of the Peninsula for select jungle species such as ocellated turkey, brown and red brocket deer, great curassow, crested guan, coatimundi, collared peccary, etc.
Our main hunting areas are in the South-Central part of the state of Campeche, were we run 2 camps. The Ik-Balam Camp, where turkeys are our main target as flocks of over a 100 birds are not uncommon. And the Nuevo Becal Camp, where we focus more on brockets, especially reds, as this area has the biggest concentration of them in the Yucatan and higher success rates are common”. (SIC)
Tankab has at least two hunting camps in Campeche. One in Hopelchén and the other one in Becal. Sources mentioned another one in Tekax Yucatan, that has not been confirmed.
Trophys fees & seasons
In Mexico, hunting is legal and allowed as long as it meets certain requirements, sanctioned by SEMARNAT in the “Ley de Vida Silvestre” articles 39, 82 and 96.
We have tried to contact Tankab with no answer so far.
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