Naturalists in Egg Smuggling Plot Ordered to Make Videos

Two prominent New York naturalists, who faced imprisonment for trying to smuggle rare Australian bird eggs into the United States, instead were ordered Tuesday to produce a videotape about birds of prey to show to Los Angeles schoolchildren.

U.S. District Judge William Rea also ordered William Henry Robinson, 49, of Saugerties, N.Y., and Jonathan James Wood, 29, of Roxbury, N.Y., to pay fines, $3,996 and $5,000 respectively, to the U.S. Customs Service for violating a 1981 federal wildlife protection law.

The men, who faced maximum sentences of five years in federal prison and $20,000 fines, offered to produce the 30-minute, educational videotape on hawks and other birds of prey as appropriate punishment.

Judge Agrees to Offer

The Los Angeles judge agreed to impose the unusual sentence after Assistant U.S. Atty. David Nimmer offered no objection.

The two men were arrested Sept. 12, 1984, at Los Angeles International Airport after arriving on a flight from Australia, Nimmer said. Acting on a tip, customs inspectors discovered 27 bird eggs strapped to the men’s bodies with elastic bandages, he said.

“The eggs were of psittacines--a type of parrot--and goshawks, protected under Australian law and illegally exported from that country,” Nimmer said.

He said the eggs had a possible value of $50,000 if all of the hatched birds survived. But only two goshawks survived, and they were reported in good condition at the Los Angeles Zoo, officials said.

‘Poor Judgment’

The men’s attorney, John Hoffman, said his clients used “poor judgment.” They went to Australia to study wildlife and “sought to finance a trip they couldn’t otherwise afford by bringing the birds back,” the lawyer told the judge.

Robinson is a wildlife author and East Coast lecturer who has spoken extensively about birds. Wood, described by authorities as an avid bird photographer, is the former head of the New York chapter of the North American Falconers Assn.

The videotape, which will be paid for by Robinson and Wood, will be made available free of charge early next year to the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest public school system, Nimmer said.