AMPHIBIAN ILLEGAL PET TRADE AND A POSSIBLE NEW CASE OF AN INVASIVE EXOTIC SPECIES IN BRAZIL

Autor(es)

Maximo, Isabel M. ^[1] ; Brandao, Reuber A. ^[2] ; Ruggeri, Joice ^[1] ; Toledo, Luis Felipe ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Lab Hist Nat Anfibios Brasileiros LaHNAB, Dept Biol Anim, Inst Biol, BR-13083970 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Brasilia, Lab Fauna & Unidades Conservacao LAFUC, Dept Engn Florestal, Campus Darcy Ribeiro, BR-70910900 Brasilia, DF - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Herpetological Conservation and Biology; v. 16, n. 2, p. 303-312, AUG 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 0

Resumo

Illegal wildlife trade is historical and has not been contained. With the popularization of the internet and social media globally, we hypothesized that illegal trade would be facilitated and predict that trade will increase. To test the hypothesis, we surveyed amphibian illegal trade on Facebook groups in the last 5 y between 2015 and 2020 in Brazil and compared our results to previous studies conducted a decade ago. We also tested whether some of the illegally traded amphibians were carrying the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), by means of VCR analyses. We also looked for information about new exotic species in Brazil. We found that the online illegal trade was indeed increasing in Brazil, becoming at least six times higher than previously reported. We did not find Bd in traded amphibians whereas we found an individual frog of the non-native Asian microhylid Kaloula pulchra in the wild in northeastern Brazil. Retrieving information about the illegal trade on the internet was easy; therefore, we advocate for a rapid and efficient action by law enforcement agents to stop or restrain the current amphibian illegal trade. Although we did not find Rd in the sampled amphibians, the sample size was small (n =45) and thus it is still possible that the trade is contributing to the spread of the pathogens. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 17/01917-6 - Interação entre o Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis e o Ranavírus em assembleias de anuros do Sul da Mata Atlântica
• Beneficiário: Joice Ruggeri Gomes
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 16/25358-3 - O fungo quitrídio no Brasil: da sua origem às suas consequências
• Beneficiário: Luis Felipe de Toledo Ramos Pereira
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático