By CATHERINE MASTERS
Lisa Hankey has yet to cry on the job but some days she really struggles to fight back the tears.
The attempted import of a North American bear still bleeding in its partly gutted carcass was one such day.
The Department of Conservation worker deals daily with skinned, stuffed and pickled endangered species, or parts thereof, of one kind or another coming across the border.
In the past 10 years the confiscation of such things as elephant leg footstalls, stuffed or skinned bears and wolves, pickled seal penises, turtle shells and bottles of murky lizard and ginseng wine has skyrocketed a whopping 670 per cent.
Boxes upon boxes of precious coral taken from Pacific island reefs and beaches cram shelf after shelf of warehouse space.
Giant spiders and beautiful butterflies in glass cases, snake belts, stuffed baby crocodiles and intricately carved ivory also fight for space.
Innocent-looking and beautifully displayed vials of so-called "medicine" containing ingredients such as bear bile can belie awful and lingering deaths.
"In some countries they are still milking the bears. They put a tube in and milk the bile. It's very painful and the bears die."
New Zealanders overseas often unwittingly contribute to the depletion of species and plunder of nature, says Ms Hankey, who is also a technical support officer for CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Coral, for example, maintains the pH level of the ocean.
"If the coral goes, your pH goes, so basically everything goes."
Because tourists see souvenirs on sale in crowded markets they believe it is legal to bring them home.
Think again, says Ms Hankey. It may be legal to buy them in a foreign country but for a vast range of items it is illegal to bring them home.
On the other hand - and incredibly so in some ways - it is at certain times of the year legal to hunt and kill members of some endangered species.
But not without proper documentation and a CITES permit.
Ms Hankey says a hard-core of New Zealand hunters go to huge expense to travel to the United States during the legal bear-shooting season, designed to keep numbers under control.
But some hunters do not get the correct permit and get angry and abusive when their trophy is taken off them.
Fully stuffed and mounted bears are not as common as bear pelts and rugs - where the head is still attached to the skinned and flayed body.
In the past two weeks alone, between 15 and 20 pelts have turned up. "Which is unusual. And that's not just bears; that includes wolves and some cats as well, like bob cats."
CITES has sound reasons for confiscating items, says Ms Hankey.
"The point of it is so we can monitor how many items are in trade and what's happening on an international level."
Buying items made out of endangered species creates a market for them.
"If local people see there is a demand and they can make money for it they will go out and kill to supply the trade."
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