A greater coucal trapped in rural Vietnam could be dinner for the hunter’s family or could be sold into the country’s bustling wild bird trade. Credit: RNuwer

The hunter is in luck. Caught in his snare trap—a homemade contraption fashioned from bamboo twigs and some rope—is a greater coucal, its neck tightly lassoed. About the size of a Chihuahua, coucals often make their home around forest fringes surrounding farmland in southern Vietnam, and their haunting, deep call is sometimes associated with omens in Asian culture. The bird’s blood-red eyes flash as it struggles to free itself; its fate, however, is sealed. The hunter claims the illegal prize.

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