Taxonomic Bias and Traits of the Global Amphibian Pet-Trade

Mohanty, Nitya Prakash; Measey, John

doi:10.1101/645259

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 24 publications

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“…Wildlife consumer demand is highly complex, and an extensive body of literature on pet vertebrates demonstrates that particular species traits can influence a person's attitude towards a species, and their willingness to purchase it (Mohanty & Measey 2019; Scheffers et al 2019; Toomes et al 2021). Understanding the drivers for the demand of terrestrial invertebrates is imperative for identifying species at risk of becoming introduced and invasive in Australia, and for protecting Australia's rarer, endemic species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untangling the web: dynamics of Australia's online terrestrial invertebrate trade

et al. 2023

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The trade and keeping of exotic pets has serious implications for both biosecurity and biodiversity conservation. In Australia, the online trade of live invertebrates is an understudied and unregulated issue, with almost non‐existent monitoring. It is uncertain what species are being traded, whether they are being identified correctly, and how they are being sourced (i.e., captive bred or wild harvested, native, or alien). Consequently, potential invasion risks and conservation concerns remain unknown. Here, we explored the online trade of terrestrial invertebrates in Australia across a range of publicly available e‐commerce platforms. We detected 264 species of invertebrate traded, from 71 families and 168 genera over 12 months. The native Extatosoma tiaratum (giant prickly stick insect) was the most traded species, while the most popular families were Phasmatidae (stick insects), Formicidae (ants) and Theraphosidae (tarantulas). Three species are known to be invasive in Australia, while 87% of species traded were native. The conservation status of almost of the species (92%) listed in the invertebrate trade has not been evaluated. Exploring socio‐demographic relationships, we found that human population density was positively correlated with the location of invertebrate sellers. Further, we found the classifieds website had lower prices in contrast to traditional online pet‐stores (median of c. A$7 less). Finally, we did not observe a saturation in the number of species traded in our one‐year study, exemplifying the need for large scale monitoring and risk assessments for Australia's online terrestrial invertebrate trade. We recommend continued surveillance of live invertebrate trade on e‐commerce sites. Substantial changes to legislation and monitoring methods are required at a national level to control the vast number of invertebrates traded across the country, and to minimise the future risks of the invertebrate trade.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%