PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Eight blue-naped parrots were seized in Quezon town from illegal wildlife traders and the near threatened birds are now at the Palawan Wildlife Refuge & Rescue Center.

But members of the Kilusan Sagip Kalikasan failed to catch the traders who fled on seeing the patrolling wildlife operatives in Barangay Tagusao, in the south-western town of Quezon.

The male traders left behind the cages containing eight parrots, locally known as pikoy.

The blue-naped parrots—found in secondary forest, forest edge and plantations up to 1,000 meters—are being bought in Palawan at P250 per bird. They will be sold in the flourishing underground market in Metro Manila at about P2,000.

Habitat loss and trading have made them scarce on most Philippine islands, except Mindoro and Palawan.

Wildlife trading is prohibited under the Philippine Wildlife Act.