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Live wild bird exports from West Africa: insights into recent trade from monitoring social media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2022

ALISA DAVIES Open the ORCID record for ALISA DAVIES [Opens in a new window] ,
ANA NUNO Open the ORCID record for ANA NUNO [Opens in a new window] ,
AMY HINSLEY Open the ORCID record for AMY HINSLEY [Opens in a new window]  and
ROWAN O. MARTIN Open the ORCID record for ROWAN O. MARTIN [Opens in a new window]
ALISA DAVIES*
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK. World Parrot Trust, Hayle, Cornwall, TR27 4HY, UK.
ANA NUNO
Affiliation:
Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9EZ, UK. Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH), NOVA University Lisbon, Avenida de Berna, 26-C, 1069-061 Lisboa, Portugal.
AMY HINSLEY
Affiliation:
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK. Oxford Martin Program on Wildlife Trade, Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3BD, UK.
ROWAN O. MARTIN
Affiliation:
World Parrot Trust, Hayle, Cornwall, TR27 4HY, UK. DST-NRF Centre of Excellence at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa.
*
*Author for correspondence; email: [email protected]
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Summary

The expansion of wildlife trade on social media presents many challenges but also opportunities to gain insights into areas of trade where there is little recent data. West Africa has historically been a major source of wild birds in international trade but in 2007, the requirement for CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Parties to monitor a host of West-African species ended and there is little data regarding current trade. To address this gap, we surveyed trade-related posts created by known traders from 2016 to 2020 on a popular social-media platform to identify species composition, trade routes and potential conservation and biosecurity risks. We identified 427 social-media posts featuring a broad taxonomic diversity of birds, including 83 species from 26 avian families, including nine CITES-listed species, four listed in IUCN Threatened categories and 19 associated with alien introductions linked to bird trade. Disease risks were identified, with multiple species housed together in densely-stocked facilities and nine species recorded as posing a potential disease risk. Using novel analyses of post-engagement, we observed social-media posts facilitating connections with users across the globe. Trade-related engagement particularly came from countries in the Middle East and South Asia, notably India which has strong domestic restrictions on the importation of wild birds. Further research is needed to monitor the impact of trade from this region, as data regarding the population status and volume of trade in many observed species is largely absent.

Keywords

Caged-bird tradeDisease risksOnline tradePet tradeWildlife trade
Type
Research Article
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 559 - 572
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

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