Police intercept restaurant supply, rescue dozens of bamboo rats

Police have seized dozens of bamboo rats of unknown origin from a Vietnamese man who was taking them on a motorbike to local restaurants, traffic police said.

Traffic police patrols on March 26 detected and stopped the man carrying two suspicious sacks on his motorbike  on a national highway in the central province of Nghe An, some 300 km (190 miles) south of Hanoi.

The 40 bamboo rats found in Nghe An, Vietnam.

They found 40 brown bamboo rats, with weights totaling 25kg (55 lbs), in the sacks. The rodents were inside small iron cages, with one still in a plastic tube-shape trap. 

The motorbiker failed to present valid papers. He said he bought the rats from locals and was en route to sell them to restaurants to make a popular delicacy. The species are raised in captivity in several locations across Vietnam.

Having identified the bamboo rats as wildlife animals, the traffic police handed them over to the local forestry unit, which often releases them.