Scale of unregulated international trade in Australian reptiles and amphibians

• DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14355
• Publication Date: 2024-09-09T14:42:43Z
• Authors: Sebastian Chekunov; Oliver Stringham; Adam Toomes; Thomas Prowse; Phillip Cassey
• Keywords: Amphibians; Conservation of Natural Resources; Internationality; Endangered Species; Australia; Commerce; Animals; Reptiles; Pets

Reptiles and amphibians are popular in the exotic pet trade, where Australian species valued for their rarity uniqueness. Despite a near-complete ban on export of wildlife, smuggling subsequent international trade frequently occur an unregulated unmonitored manner. In 2022, Australia listed over 100 squamates Appendix III Convention International Trade Endangered Species Wild Fauna Flora (CITES) to better monitor this trade. We investigated current assessed value CITES listing using web-scraping methods online reptiles amphibians, with additional data from published papers, databases, seizure records. ban, we identified 170 endemic herpetofauna (reptile amphibian) 33 which were not recorded previously market, including 6 newly genera. Ninety-two traded included appendices (59 added 2022), but at least 78 other remained unregulated. Among these, 5 10 threatened unlisted, recommend they be considered inclusion III. also all Diplodactylidae genera family representing greatest number only one genus (of 7 traded) was recent amendments. Overall, large reptile amphibian internationally and, although acknowledge Australia's listing, consideration taxa similar CITES.