Exotic consumerism
But what facilitates this live trade in illegal wildlife? Clearly, markets willing to pay $40,000 for a gorilla in China or $10,000 for a Cheetah in Kuwait are enough to sustain the supply lines, and the rapidly expanding use of social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram to advertise wildlife makes transactions easier than ever. A recent survey by TRAFFIC of 14 Facebook sites in Malaysia over a period of five months uncovered over 300 wild, live animals for sale as pets, including gibbons, sun bears, binturongs and other endangered species – but the fact that those posts involved 106 different sellers indicates the widespread nature of the problem.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons
carefully taped to his legs and hidden in his groin. Xu was already a suspect in the smuggling of thousands of reptiles all over the world, and his arrest in the Detroit-Windsor tunnel that connects the U.S. to Canada was a major break in cracking the illegal live trade.
A few weeks later, Xu, while out on bail, drove a hired car to Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the U.S. His accomplice carried two suitcases containing almost 1,000 turtles – valued at over $30,000 USD on the black market. Agents made the discovery while inspecting the bags, and both men were arrested and faced federal charges. Experts say that some endangered turtles can be sold for $1,800 USD in North America and Europe, and triple that amount in China.
Meanwhile, Egyptian customs officials made another horrifying discovery in April 2016 when they detected suspicious movement while monitoring the X-ray baggage scanner. Sixty Egyptian cobras – one of the largest and deadliest snakes in Africa -- were found to be stuffed in six bags inside two foam boxes and surrounded by ice to keep their movement limited, their mouths closed with surgical thread.
The illegal trade in live animals is also a big enough business to attract drug cartels. In Mexico, the record high prices offered for sea cucumbers -- a slug-like species that is considered a delicacy in Asia and sells for $500 USD per kilogram -- led to pitched battles between rival gangs in Yucatán and Campeche in 2014. One year later, 10 armed men attacked three armed guards and stole 3.5 tonnes of dehydrated sea cucumber in El Cuyo on the Yucatán peninsula, and Mexican customs officials followed soon
Video: Exotic animal species smuggled
© Nature Documentary Films
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzgTAbp-Fyo Photo Credit: IUCN
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UNEP FRONTIERS 2016 REPORT
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