Commercial Trade of Wildlife - Collectors Of Rare And Exotic Species

Many wild species are valued by collectors, including spiders, insects such as beetles or butterflies, and plants, particularly orchids and cacti. Rare species are particularly sought after. For that reason Fish and Wildlife biologists are sometimes reluctant to reveal the critical habitats of threatened and endangered species in the United States. Despite strict prohibition under the Endangered Species Act, however, the poaching of numerous imperiled species thrives.

Exotic species including wild birds, reptiles, and mammals are also valued in the illegal pet trade. According to CITES, approximately 40,000 primates were illegally traded annually in the 1990s. Animal smuggling is an extremely lucrative business, and international efforts to halt it have not been successful. This is attributed in large part to shoddy or nonexistent inspection due to lack of funds and manpower.

The Reptile Trade

The reptile trade is extremely lucrative, with large profits and low transport costs. In addition, trade in reptiles is less closely controlled and monitored than that of mammals and birds. Illegally collected reptiles are used primarily for food, although some species also bring in huge sums in the pet trade.

In 1998 decades of effort by U.S. and Mexican agents culminated in the apprehension of a Malaysian reptile smuggler in Mexico City. He was convicted of heading a large smuggling operation that procured live threatened and endangered reptiles from the wild for sale as exotic pets. Animals were transported from Asia into North America via Mexico. Between 1995 and 1998 this smuggling ring was estimated to have brought in over three hundred protected animals worth about $500,000. These included a Chinese alligator that sold for $15,000 on the black market, monitor lizards that brought in $3,000 apiece, and a ten-foot Komodo dragon from Indonesia that sold for $30,000.

In March 2001 the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks and the Royal Customs and Excise announced the interception of two large shipments of threatened reptiles. The first included 1,100 animals, and the second included sixty rare snakes, tortoises, and spiders.

Some exotic reptiles, including green iguanas and boa constrictors, can be legally obtained and kept as pets. However, many of the owners who acquire these animals fail to realize the responsibilities involved. Giant green iguanas, a favorite of reptile collectors, may grow to six feet in length, a size many owners find unmanageable. Giant green iguanas are also particularly susceptible to metabolic bone disease (MBD), which results from calcium deficiency and causes severe deformity or death. Although MBD can be cured, treatment is costly, and pet owners frequently decide to get rid of their pets rather than seek veterinary care. In addition some owners dispose of overgrown or diseased reptilian pets in sewers or other public conduits, creating dangers for native species. (This is the source of long-time rumors that alligators inhabit New York City sewers.)

Illegal Trade of Wild Birds

Human desire for exotic pets is emptying the skies of some of Earth's most colorful creatures. (See Figure 10.2.) Numerous bird species, particularly parrots, are endangered due to overexploitation for the illegal pet trade. Approximately 75 percent of the exotic birds sold as pets in the United States were caught in the wild rather than bred in captivity. Demand for exotic pets results in very high prices, as much as $10,000 or more for certain species. In the United States, a single parrot can easily command a thousand dollars or more. Table 10.1 shows some of the potential profits to be made in the rare bird trade.

Illegal trade in birds is thriving worldwide. Due to a lack of financial resources, most countries are only rarely able to enforce laws designed to control trade. The European community has no enforcement agency to deal with the issue, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is grossly underfunded in this respect. Illegal traders often use legal trade as a cover, relying on falsification of documents, under-declaration of the number of birds in a shipment, FIGURE 10.2
Many tropical birds, including this scarlet macaw, are sought as exotic pets. (Field Mark Publications) concealment of illegal birds in legal shipments, capture in excess of quotas, and misdeclaration of species. The United States, the largest importer of wild birds in the world, legally brings half a million exotic birds into the country each year. An estimated 100,000 more may be smuggled into the country, with as many as 60 percent of the birds dying in transit because of terrible shipping conditions. Illegal smuggling continues despite the passage of the Wild Bird Conservation Act in 1992, which banned the import of ten species of threatened birds. In 1993 the law was expanded to include almost all CITES-listed bird species.

Bird trapping varies from country to country. Most methods are indiscriminate and result in the capture of untargeted species. In liming, a "teaser" bird lures other birds to trees, where they become stuck on limes, or glued sticks. Liming causes great stress to captured birds. In addition, limes are sometimes set and left, with the result that birds break legs or wings struggling to get loose. Nets are also used to capture wild birds in Latin America and Africa. Decoy birds are used to attract the target species. In night capture, birds are immobilized using a bright light and caught. Nylon loops are sometimes strung around

TABLE 10.1
Profits to be made in the rare-bird trade

Country and species	Price for trapper	Exporter declared value	Exporter price list	Retail value in importing country
Senegal
Quelea	$0.09	N/A	0.50	22
Senegal parrot	$1.82	4	2.70	115
Tanzania
Meyer's parrot	$2.10	7	17.25	105
Guyana
Blue and Gold macaw	$5.00	175	325	750
Orange-winged Amazon	$2–3.00	25	32	298
Argentina
Blue-fronted Amazon	$1.20–3.50	23	70–136	340
Red lory	$2.52	18	15–20	230
White cockatoo	$6.50	85	100	800–900
SOURCE: "Profits to Be Made in the Rare-Bird Trade," in Flight to Extinction—The Wild-Caught Bird Trade, Animal Welfare Institute and Environmental Investigation Agency, Washington, DC, 1997

perches to entangle birds. As with liming, nylon loops are indiscriminate in their capture of birds, and many birds are seriously injured attempting to escape. In fact, in Indonesia 10 to 30 percent of cockatoos caught with nylon loops are rendered commercially nonviable because of injuries to their legs and feet. In wing shooting, pellets are shot into a flock, rendering some birds unable to fly and easy to capture. More birds are killed than captured in the process, and many of the captured individuals die later. Finally, young birds are sometimes taken from the nest. This method, also called tree-felling, is used to acquire parrots from the wild because pet dealers prefer young birds that can more easily be trained to "talk." The parrots' nesting tree is often cut down or hacked apart, rendering it useless as future habitat. Consequently, this is one of the most environmentally destructive methods of capture.

Tropical Fish

Collection of tropical fish species for the aquarium trade has harmed numerous species. In Hawaii, a major supplier of saltwater species for the aquarium market, fish depletion has led to conflicts between tropical reef fish collectors, scuba diving operations, and subsistence fishers. Lisa Choquette, the owner of a scuba tour business, explains that "areas that we take divers to all the time, and that once had rivers of fish swimming in and out of the corals, are now quite barren." In addition, several tropical species collected as tiny juveniles for the aquarium trade ultimately grow into large fish sought by subsistence fishermen. Exploitation of reef fish for trade has increased over the past decades, from 90,000 fish taken in 1973 to over 423,000 in 1995. Aquarium species collected most commonly in Hawaii include the yellow tang, kole, Achilles tang, longnose butterfly fish, Moorish idol, orangespine unicornfish, and Potter's angelfish. Fish populations have declined significantly in locations where aquarium collection occurs. For example, the Achilles tang has declined by 63 percent and the longnose butterfly fish by 54 percent.

In response to these declines, Hawaii passed a bill establishing several Fish Replenishment Areas where collecting is prohibited. Biologists are also trying to develop captive breeding programs, so that aquarium species can be raised in captivity rather than collected from the wild.