Conservationists in Colombia transported nearly 150 animals seized from illegal traffickers and will release them back into their natural Amazon habitats after being rehabilitated.

The animals, including 13 mammals like wild cats and Capuchin monkeys, 53 birds and 83 reptiles, had 10 months of rehabilitation, including surgery when necessary, to heal skin and recover plumage, the environmental authority of the country's Valle del Cauca department announced.

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"We selected individual animals that could defend themselves in their environment, who weren't too far along in adulthood so they wouldn't fall easy prey," said Lorena Gomez, a biologist with Valle del Cauca authority.

While being kept in conditions like their jungle habitats, the animals underwent careful medical exams to ensure they wouldn't carry diseases when released back into the native habitats to join natural populations in the wild, authorities said.

The animals were placed in crates and loaded into a Colombian Air Force plane for a  two hour flight from the city of Palmira to the town of Solano.

From there, the animals will be put on a boat for a  five hour trip deep into the Amazonian jungle to be released, officials said.

For the past two years, Colombia has seized about 55,000 wild animals and plants in operations against illegal traffickers that often operate to finance criminal gangs, said the country's Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

Wildlife trafficking is a huge issue in Colombia and in other parts of the world, a fact US Secretary of State John Kerry addressed last year in China at an international conference.

TagsColombia Returns Trafficked Animals into their Amazon Habitats, Colombia, Trafficked Animals, Amazon, Amazon rainforest, Wildlife trafficking, wild animals, jungle habitats