Abstract
Wildlife trade is increasingly impeding the conservation of imperilled wildlife and is a potential threat to human health. Ferret badgers are extensively traded in China, although the trends, drivers and health implications of ferret badger trade in other parts of Asia remain poorly known. Here, we focus on the pet trade of a little known endemic small carnivore species, Javan ferret badger Melogale orientalis in Indonesia, over a 10 yr period (2011-2020). The Javan ferret badger is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with an unknown population trend. We aimed to gain insight into the magnitude of this trade, its purposes, price trends, distribution records, health risks and shifts to online platforms. We documented 44 ferret badgers in 11 wildlife markets in Java and Bali and 100 ferret badgers for sale on online platforms. We observed a shift in trade from traditional animal markets only, to trade in these markets as well as online. Asking prices, corrected for inflation, declined significantly from ~USD 37 in 2012 to ~USD 22 in 2020, and were related to the purchasing power in cities where trade occurred. Widespread sale of the species highlights that enforcement continues to be overly passive as any trade in the species is illegal. We recommend that the Javan ferret badger be afforded full national protection and prioritised in monitoring efforts to establish its true conservation status. Additionally, concerted efforts are needed to determine if online trade poses a risk to conservation and human health.
Highlights
The trade in wildlife is extensive throughout Asia, where local people buy animals for a range of purposes, including meat consumption, as ingredients for traditional medicines, for skins and furs, as live pets and for use in a range of household products (Grieser-Johns & Thomson 2005, Nijman 2010)
We found 100 Javan ferret badgers for sale on 7 online platforms (Table 2, Fig. 1) in 51 separate advertisements
If local sourcing did take place, our trade records support the general Javan ferret badger distribution model that the species is widely distributed across Java in scattered localities, with local abundances appearing to be highest in western parts of the island (Tables 1 & 2, Fig. 2; Duckworth et al 2008, Rode-Margono et al 2014, Wilianto & Wibisono 2017)
Summary
The trade in wildlife is extensive throughout Asia, where local people buy animals for a range of purposes, including meat consumption, as ingredients for traditional medicines, for skins and furs, as live pets and for use in a range of household products (Grieser-Johns & Thomson 2005, Nijman 2010). The internet acts as a conduit for promoting and popularising new species, which perpetuates public attitudes that a species is available as a pet (Nekaris et al 2013, Harrington et al 2019, Siriwat et al 2020). Online marketing can do significant damage to species conservation by creating demand for animals that may have once been invisible to the public eye. Prior to 2009, most people had no knowledge of these cryptic mammals; following the upload of a ‘viral’ video of a pygmy slow loris N. pygmaeus being tickled, desire for it as a pet boomed around the world, directly impacting its conservation (Nekaris et al 2013). Online marketing creates a false image that exotic species are suited to domestication, whereas the opposite is often true. Many studies provide ample evidence of suffering and increased mortalities in animals that are removed from the wild to be kept as pets (Gomez & Bouhuys 2018, Siriwat & Nijman 2018), highlighting the need to monitor this trade and uphold animal welfare standards
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