The 19-year-olds were arrested last week at a tourist accommodation in Nakuru, a Kenyan region known for its wildlife. The room was also found to contain 2,244 test tubes, filled with cotton balls and queen ants of the terrifying species messor cephalotes – a red variant that can grow up to 2.5 centimeters.
They are said to be attractive as exotic pets, and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) accuses the Belgians of being part of a network that smuggles the animals to Europe and Asia. The ants are valued at around one million shillings, equivalent to over 75,000 kronor, but the authorities also say that the value can vary greatly depending on where in the world the animals end up.
In a first court appearance in Nairobi this week, the young men claimed that ant collecting was just an innocent hobby, and that they did not know it was illegal.
The court also took up a case involving a Kenyan and a Vietnamese who were caught with 400 ants.
KWS says that it's easy to focus on larger animals when it comes to smuggling and plundering of natural resources, but that small ones are just as important.
"When you see a thriving forest, like the Ngong forest, you don't think about what makes it thrive", writes the organization. "It's the relationships all the way from bacteria to ants to large animals".
