49 research outputs found
A snapshot of online wildlife trade: Australian e-commerce trade of native and non-native pets
No full textFunding This project was funded by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (Project PO1-I-001). Adam Toomes was additionally supported by the FJ Sandoz PhD Scholarship. Pablo GarcíaDíaz was funded by NERC grants NE/S011641/1 (Newton LATAM programme) and 2022GCBCCONTAIN.Peer reviewe
Scale of unregulated international trade in Australian reptiles and amphibians
No full textReptiles and amphibians are popular in the exotic pet trade, where Australian species are valued for their rarity and uniqueness. Despite a near-complete ban on the export of Australian wildlife, smuggling and subsequent international trade frequently occur in an unregulated and unmonitored manner. In 2022, Australia listed over 100 squamates in Appendix III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to better monitor this trade. We investigated current trade and assessed the value of this Australian CITES listing using web-scraping methods to monitor the online pet trade in Australian reptiles and amphibians, with additional data from published papers, trade databases, and seizure records. Despite the export ban, we identified 170 endemic herpetofauna (reptile and amphibian) species in international trade, 33 of which were not recorded previously in the international market, including 6 newly recorded genera. Ninety-two traded species were included in CITES appendices (59 added in 2022), but at least 78 other traded species remained unregulated. Among these, 5 of the 10 traded threatened species were unlisted, and we recommend they be considered for inclusion in CITES Appendix III. We also recommend the listing of all Diplodactylidae genera in Appendix III. Despite this family representing the greatest number of Australian species in trade, only one genus (of 7 traded) was included in the recent CITES amendments. Overall, a large number of Australian reptile and amphibian species are traded internationally and, although we acknowledge the value of Australia's recent CITES listing, we recommend the consideration of other taxa for similar inclusion in CITES.Sebastian Chekunov, Oliver Stringham, Adam Toomes, Thomas Prowse, Phillip Casse
Supplemental materials for preprint: Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
No full textSupplementary materials for preprint 'Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
Analysing Dynamics of the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Australia
No full textRecent technological advances in international methods of transport, trade and communication have fundamental implications for global biosecurity and the spread of invasive species. The online trade of live non-native wildlife as exotic (i.e., nondomesticated) pets is an emerging biosecurity threat in Australia via the pet-release-pathway, yet both the legal and illegal components of this trade remain poorly documented. I utilised existing State/Territory and Commonwealth databases to identify trends in the public desire for alien pets as well as trends in the interception of illegal pets. Additionally, I developed data-mining tools in order to quantify online e-commerce legal and illegal trade in alien exotic vertebrate pets. My research revealed a continuous accumulation of new alien species arriving in Australia and a predicted rapid increase in wild incursions, posing substantial challenges for Australian biosecurity agencies in the immediate future. My online trade surveillance detected over 100,000 individual pets advertised over a 3.5 month period involving over 1100 species of alien and native pets. Highly traded species of cagebirds and ornamental fish include species with a history of past invasion and known agricultural pests, such as Indian ringneck parrots (Psittacula krameri) and jaguar cichlids (Parachromis managuensis). The trade of such species is not consistently regulated across all States and Territories, nor is there any national framework for the surveillance of alien pet trade. Moreover, Australia permits a high diversity of alien fish for import due to its use of coarse (e.g., family level) taxonomic classification, creating legal ambiguity regarding the import of undescribed species and hybrids. My research on the permit-regulated trade of native pets in South Australia suggests that trade-based propagule pressure significantly increases when pets are possessed in greater quantities and that more stringent permit requirements significantly reduce the quantity of pets both possessed and escaped. Future research should investigate whether these findings can be expanded to alien taxa, as this would suggest that the use of permits may provide a means of reducing the quantity of alien pets traded within Australia and consequently tradebased propagule pressure.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Biological Sciences, 202
Supplemental materials for preprint: Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
No full textSupplementary materials for preprint 'Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
Supplemental materials for preprint: Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
No full textSupplementary materials for preprint 'Drivers of the live pet trade: the role of species traits, socioeconomic attributes and regulatory systems
Who's a pretty bird? Predicting the traded abundance of bird species in Australian online pet trade
No full textPublished online: 16 December 2023The increasing popularity of online commerce provides a new opportunity to investigate and quantify the dynamics of pet trade. Understanding these dynamics, including relationships between species characteristics and a species’ relative abundance in trade, can assist in informing trade regulation for conservation and biosecurity. We identified the leading correlates behind the abundance in the Australian pet trade of parrot (Psittaciformes) and passerine (Passeriformes) species. We examined 14,000 online sales of parrots and passerines collected from a popular online Australian marketplace in 2019 (representing 235 species) using an automated data collection method. We identified the characteristics that correlated with online species abundance; including (i) breeding and handling requirements; (ii) trade and availability; and (iii) appearance and behaviour. We found 55% of parrot species and 64% of passerine species traded online were non-native to Australia; of these, 81% and 85% respectively have an extreme risk of establishing invasive populations. Species abundance of both orders was correlated with cheaper prices, which is also associated with a higher invasion risk. Trade in parrots was correlated with attractive birdsongs, being easier to care for, and a preference for native Australian species. Passerine abundance was correlated with attractive plumage colour and, to a lesser extent, the availability of colour mutations and smaller geographic range sizes. These results, combined with an understanding of consumer behaviour and international trends, may help predict which species will become abundant in domestic trade in the future, and identify current and future invasion risks to assist in environmental biosecurity efforts.Katherine G. W. Hill, Oliver C. Stringham, Stephanie Moncayo, Adam Toomes, Jonathan J. Tyler, Phillip Cassey, Steven Delea
Multi-omics reveal microbial succession and metabolomic adaptations to flood in a hypersaline coastal lagoon.
No full textMicroorganisms drive essential biogeochemical processes in aquatic ecosystems and are sensitive to both salinity and hydrological changes. As climate change and anthropogenic activities alter hydrology and salinity worldwide, understanding microbial ecology and metabolism becomes increasingly important for managing aquatic ecosystems. Biogeochemical processes were investigated on sediment microbial communities during a significant flood event in the hypersaline Coorong lagoon, South Australia (the largest in the Murray-Darling Basin since 1956). Samples from six sites across a salinity gradient were collected before and during flooding in 2022. To assess changes in microbial taxonomy and metabolic function, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing was employed alongside untargeted liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to assess changes in microbial taxonomy and metabolic function. Results showed a decrease in microbial richness and diversity during flooding, especially in hypersaline conditions. Pre-flood communities were enriched with osmolyte-degrading and methanogenic taxa, alongside osmoprotectant metabolites, such as glycine betaine and choline. Flood conditions favored taxa such as Halanaerobiaceae and Beggiatoaceae, inducing inferred metagenomic shifts indicative of sulfur cycling and nitrogen reduction pathways, while also enriching a greater diversity of metabolites including Gly-Phe dipeptides and guanine. This study demonstrates that integrating metabolomics with microbial community analysis enhances understanding of ecosystem responses to disturbance. These findings suggest microbial communities rapidly change in response to salinity reductions while maintaining key biogeochemical functions. Such insights are valuable for ecosystem management and predictive modelling under environmental stressors such as flooding.Christopher Keneally, Daniel Chilton, Tyler N. Dornan, Stephen P. Kidd, Virginie Gaget, Adam Toomes, Charlotte Lassaline, Reuben Petrovski, Lisa Wood, Justin D. Brooke
The dark web trades wildlife, but mostly for use as drugs
No full textFirst published: 03 May 20231. Contemporary wildlife trade is massively facilitated by the Internet. By design, the dark web is one layer of the Internet that is difficult to monitor and continues to lack thorough investigation. 2. Here, we accessed a comprehensive database of dark web marketplaces to search across c. 2 million dark web advertisements over 5 years using c. 7 k wildlife trade-related search terms. 3. We found 153 species traded in 3332 advertisements (c. 600 advertisements per year). We characterized a highly specialized wildlife trade market, where c. 90% of dark-web wildlife advertisements were for recreational drugs. 4. We verified that 68 species contained chemicals with drug properties. Species advertised as drugs mostly comprised of plant species, however, fungi and animals were also traded as drugs. Most species with drug properties were psychedelics (45 species), including one genera of fungi, Psilocybe, with 19 species traded on the dark web. The native distribution of plants with drug properties were clustered in Central and South America. A smaller proportion of trade was for purported medicinal properties of wildlife, clothing, decoration, and as pets. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results greatly expand on what wildlife species are currently traded on the dark web and provide a baseline to track future changes. Given the low number of advertisements, we assume current conservation and biosecurity risks of the dark web are low. While wildlife trade is rampant on other layers of the Internet, particularly on e-commerce and social media sites, trade on the dark web may still increase if these popular platforms are rendered less accessible to traders (e.g., via an increase in enforcement). We recommend focussing on surveillance of e-commerce and social media sites, but we encourage continued monitoring of the dark web periodically to evaluate potential shifts in wildlife trade across this more occluded layer of the Internet.Oliver C. Stringham, Jacob Maher, Charlotte R. Lassaline, Lisa Wood, Stephanie Moncayo, Adam Toomes, Sarah Heinrich, Freyja Watters, Charlotte Drake, Sebastian Chekunov, Katherine G. W. Hill, David Decary-Hetu, Lewis Mitchell, Joshua V. Ross, Phillip Casse
Australia’s wish list of exotic pets: biosecurity and conservation implications of desired alien and illegal pet species
No full textVolume: 60Start Page: 43End Page: 5
