Africa’s Iconic Hornbills Face ‘Terrifying’ Trade Threat

For millions of years, the distinctive calls of hornbills have filled Africa’s forests and savannas. These large, charismatic birds with their striking curved beaks once thrived across the continent’s diverse landscapes. But when ornithologist Nico Arcilla returned to West African forests in 2008, she made a disturbing discovery: the hornbills had vanished.

Arcilla first fell in love with these “fabulous birds” during her Peace Corps service in Gabon in the late 1990s, enchanted by their loud wing beats and raucous calls as they flew in large flocks. Nearly a decade later, armed with a forestry Ph.D. and expecting to find hornbills in Ghana’s forest canopies, she instead found an eerie silence. The reason for their disappearance was both “frightening” and preventable: unregulated international trade.

Research reveals that African hornbills are increasingly targeted by bushmeat hunters and trafficked internationally, particularly to the United States. Despite this alarming trend, none of Africa’s 32 hornbill species receives protection under CITES, the global wildlife trade agreement, leaving their international commerce completely unregulated.

The scope and impact of this trade remains largely unknown—scientists lack crucial data about buyers, markets, trade volumes, and population effects. This knowledge gap makes it nearly impossible to assess the true threat to these ecologically important birds, which play vital roles as seed dispersers in African ecosystems. Researchers are now calling for increased protection and regulation before Africa loses these iconic species forever.