The increased trade in live wildlife for pets and other uses potentially elevates colonization pressure, and hence the risk of invasions. Yet, we have limited knowledge on number of species traded outside their native ranges as aliens. We create the most comprehensive global live terrestrial vertebrate trade database, and use it to investigate the richness of alien species in trade, and correlates of establishment richness, for aliens across countries worldwide. We identify 10,378 terrestrial vertebrate species in the live wildlife trade globally. Approximately 90.1% of these species are aliens, and 9.1% of the aliens establish populations. Large numbers of alien species have been imported to countries with high incomes and large areas. Such countries are also hotspots for establishment, along with some island nations. Colonization pressure and insularity consistently promote establishment richness across countries. Socio-economic and climatic factors are also associated with establishment richness for different taxa. This study identifies daunting challenges to global biosecurity from future invasion risks posed by wildlife trade.
Wildlife crimes that involve smuggling threaten national security and biodiversity, cause regional conflicts, and hinder economic development, especially in developing countries with abundant wildlife resources. Over the past few decades, significant headway has been made in combating wildlife smuggling and the related illegal domestic trade in China. Previous studies on the wildlife smuggling trade were based mainly on customs punishment and confiscation data. From the China Judgments Online website, we retrieved cases related to cross‐border wildlife and wildlife products smuggling from 2014 to 2020. In total, 510 available cases and 927 records for more than 110 species were registered. We studied each judgment and ruling file thoroughly to extract information on cases, defendants, species, sentences, and origins and destinations of wildlife and wildlife products. Furthermore, the frequency of origin–destination place occurrences and spatial patterns of cross‐border wildlife crime in China were shown in this data paper. The main purpose of our data set is to make these wildlife and wildlife products trade data accessible for researchers to develop conservation studies. We expect that this data set will be valuable for network analysis of regional or global wildlife trafficking, which has attracted global attention. There are no copyright restrictions on the data; we ask that researchers please cite this paper and the associated data set when using the data in publications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.