Lankan rupees) on three Russian nation-
als who illegally collected hundreds of
animal and plant specimens from Sri
Lanka ( 2 ). However, once smugglers trans-
port a species to another country, they are
no longer subject to Sri Lankan law. The
international community must work with
Sri Lanka to protect Sri Lankan species
from illegal wildlife trafficking.
Foreign nationals trying to smuggle
rare animals and plants is an ongoing
problem in Sri Lanka [e.g., ( 3 )]. A recent
study found that 12 endangered endemic
and range-restricted lizards of Sri Lanka
are available in the international pet
market ( 4 ). Most smugglers are based in
Europe, where species not listed by the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species can be freely traded
and often sell for a very high price ( 5 ). In
some cases, previously unidentified spe-
cies of flora and fauna from Sri Lanka
have first been described by foreigners
based on illegally collected and smuggled
specimens ( 6 ).
Sri Lanka cannot put an end to smug-
gling alone. Strengthening customs is
expensive and requires vigilance in ports,
airports, and postal services. Because spe-
cies in high demand are often found in
limited locations, improving site policing,management, and public awareness may
be a more cost-effective approach. But
these strategies will continue to fall short
until weak legislation in Europe and
around the world is replaced by laws that
effectively prevent wildlife trade ( 7 ).
Tharaka S. Priyadarshana
Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore City,
Singapore. Email: [email protected]REFERENCES AND NOTES- LawNet, Ministry of Justice, Sri Lanka, “Fauna and
flora protection (amendment)” (1993); http://www.lawnet.
gov.lk/fauna-and-flora-protection-amendment-
3/#:~:text=an%20ordinance%20to%20provide%20
for,connected%20therewith%20or%20incidental%20
thereto. - T. Razeek, “Laws are not strong enough,”
Ceylon Today (2022); https://ceylontoday.
lk/news/laws-are-not-strong-enough-dr-
gunawardana#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20laws%20
are%20not%20harsh. - Sri Lanka Customs, “Biodiversity protection detec-
tions” (2021); http://www.customs.gov.lk/category/
biodiversity-protection-detections/. - J. Janssen, A. De Silva, Traffic Bull. 31 , 9 (2019).
- M. Auliya et al., Biol. Conserv. 204 , 103 (2016).
- A. A. T. Amarasinghe, R. Pethiyagoda, Taprobanica 9 ,
133 (2020). - S. Altherr, “Stolen wildlife—Why the EU needs to
tackle smuggling of nationally protected spe-
cies” (2014); http://www.prowildlife.de/wp-content/
uploads/2016/02/2014_stolen-wildlife-report.pdf.
10.1126/science.abo4994SCIENCE science.org 15 APRIL 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6590 255PHOTO: THARAKA S. PRIYADARSHANA
Retraction
In the Research Article “Direct imaging
discovery of a Jovian exoplanet within
a triple-star system” ( 1 ), we identified a
gas giant exoplanet in the star system
HD 131399. Follow-up observations by
another team ( 2 ) showed that the detec-
tion could have been a false positive.
The object might instead have been an
unusually fast-moving background source,
whose motion is coincidentally aligned
with HD 131399, causing it to pass our
common proper motion tests. We have
now obtained additional observations
of the system, spanning a longer time
period ( 3 ). These show that the primary
star, HD 131399A, has a parallax at least
several times greater than the putative
exoplanet, indicating that they are at
substantially different distances. This
confirms that the object is a background
source, not an exoplanet associated with
HD 131399. We are therefore retracting
the Research Article. All authors agree
with this retraction.
Kevin Wagner^1 *, Dániel Apai1,2, Markus Kasper^3 ,
Kaitlin Kratter^1 , Melissa McClure^4 , Massimo
Robberto^5 , Jean-Luc Beuzit^6(^1) Department of Astronomy and Steward
Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
85721, USA.^2 Lunar and Planetary Laboratory,
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
(^3) European Southern Observatory, D-85748
Garching, Germany.^4 Leiden University, 2311 EZ
Leiden, Netherlands.^5 Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.^6 Laboratoire
d’Astrophysique de Marseille, 13013 Marseille,
France.
*Corresponding author.
Email: [email protected]
REFERENCES AND NOTES
- K. Wagner et al., Science 353 , 673 (2016).
- E. L. Nielsen et al., A s t ro n. J. 154 , 218 (2017).
- K. Wagner et al., A s t ro n. J. 163 , 80 (2022).
10.1126/science.abq1709
Save Sri Lankan wildlife
from foreign smugglers
Sri Lanka, a highly biodiverse tropi-
cal island, is home to many vulnerable
endemic species, which are targeted by
wildlife smugglers. The country’s strong
species protection laws prohibit the
exploitation of endemic species ( 1 ). In
January, a Sri Lankan court imposed the
country’s largest fine yet (8.6 million SriEdited by Jennifer SillsDucipsap erspelit ut faccat as nobit vitiunt et
LETTERS magniam volorro rercili quost, sandit is quasintSri Lanka’s endemic rhino-horned lizard (Ceratophora stoddartii) has been seen in illegal wildlife markets.