Marc van Roosmalen, as a zoologist and cryptozoologist, has used Ivan Sanderson’s and Bernard Heuvelmans’ classic cryptozoological fieldwork techniques, trusting the locals, listening to the native tales, and tracking down new animals. Now comes shocking news from his adopted Brazil that is anything but good.

According to breaking press accounts, Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen faces 14 years in a Brazilian prison. An apparent victim of bureaucracy, he has been convicted of failing to apply for a license for the monkey refuge at his home in the Amazon region of Brazil. He is appealing the sentence.

Time Magazine in 2000 hailed van Roosmalen as a “hero for the planet.”

As Darren Naish recently noted, in opening a multi-post series on van Roosmalen’s new species discoveries, “few living people have contributed so much to the discovery and documentation of new terrestrial mammal species as Dutch primatologist Dr Marc van Roosmalen.”

According to correspondent Jeroen Dirks, van Roosmalen has been convicted of biopiracy: “It was easy to find a reason to take legal action against Van Roosmalen. He was accused of failing to apply for a permit for the monkey refuge at his home. This meant that the 28 orphaned monkeys he was keeping there were technically stolen. He was accused of monkey theft and biopiracy and sentenced to 14 years in prison.”

The 60-year-old primatologist, biologist and, yes, cryptozoologist is now behind bars in Brazil.