New research exposing the surprising scale and diversity of Australia’s invertebrate pet trade online highlights the need for better regulation to protect our wildlife and manage biosecurity threats.
The import of ivory into the UK from five more species, including walruses, has been banned.
Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock
Most wildlife is trafficked openly, while dark web markets sell animals, plants and fungi as drugs. But this could change if there’s a clampdown on open trade.
Trade in exotic pets online is far more prevalent and diverse than previously thought. Threatened species, invasive species and banned imports are all for sale.
Tigers in South Africa are being intensively farmed for commercial trade.
Hristo Vladev/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Tigers exist in South Africa because they’re being intensively farmed for commercial trade in live individuals or their body parts.
Four Père David’s deer (Elaphurus davidianus), also known as milu deer, on a wetland near the Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve in Jiangsu Province, China.
He Jinghua/VCG via Getty Images
China has rich natural resources and is seeking to play a leadership role in global conservation, but its economic goals often take priority over protecting lands and wildlife.
For the lab leak theory to be true, SARS-CoV-2 must have been present in the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the pandemic started. But there’s not a single piece of data suggesting this.
Drying polar bear skin in Hopedale, Nunatsiavut.
(Eldred Allen)
Social media platforms have enabled wildlife traders to connect as never before. Some operate legally, within the boundaries of international laws. Others are less scrupulous.
White raccoon dogs are prized for their unusual fur.
(Shutterstock)
In China, the wildlife trade is thriving, driven by the increased demands for luxury goods and traditional medicine. But there is real concern about the threat of diseases that can cross over to humans.
Disturbing the habitats of horseshoe bats, like these in Borneo, increases the risk of virus spillover.
Mike Prince/Flickr
How can nations prevent more pandemics like COVID-19? One priority is reducing the risk of diseases’ jumping from animals to humans. And that means understanding how human actions fuel that risk.
Enforcement at protected areas is key way to prevent bushmeat poaching, but it’s also important to recognise the contribution bushmeat makes to livelihoods, incomes and food security.
Pangolins have been found with covonaviruses that are genetically similar to the one afflicting humans today.
Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
Global Head of Wildlife Research, World Animal Protection, and Visiting Researcher, Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford