18th July 2012
A pet problem

Cats, dogs and rabbits are common pets in the UK but in some countries, including the UK, people like to have more exotic animals for company.  The international pet trade is a huge industry that sees many animals shipped from country to country and a new report has found a group of islands taking exotic birds straight from the wild.

Our exotic pets should be animals bred in captivity, not ones stolen from their natural environment and sold, but this is what has been happening on the Solomon Islands.  These islands are tropical paradises in the Pacific Ocean near Australia with white sandy beaches and clear blue seas.  The Solomon Islands consist of over 1,000 islands and most are covered in hot humid rainforests that are home to a variety of wildlife.

From the year 2000 to 2010 the islands exported around 54,000 birds - that's over 5,000 a year!  An investigation by an organisation called Traffic found that many of these birds were being captured in the wild and exported to other countries labelled as 'captive-bred', mainly to markets in Malaysia and Singapore.  Sadly, 35 of the total bird species that are exported are on the international Red List of Endangered Species.

One of these birds is the yellow-crested cockatoo seen pictured above.  These magnificent birds can live up to 40 years and are a popular pet around the world.  But being beautiful comes with a price as this popular bird is now listed as 'critically endangered' almost entirely due to over exploitation in the pet industry ₁.  This kind of activity isn't as unusual as you might think.  According to the organisation Captive Animals Protection Society many exotic pets are still taken from the wild: as many as 84% of all live reptiles imported into the UK in 2003 were wild-caught and over 95% of marine fish are similarly taken from the wild ₂. 

Cases like these on the Solomon Islands help raise awareness of the plight of some exotic animals.  Avoiding buying exotic pets is the best way to help curb these illegal trades but if you are looking to buy, always do plenty of research and make sure that they come from a reputable dealer and have been bred in captivity.   

1. IUCN's Red List of Endangered Species
2. Captve Animals - Exotic Pets Factsheet (PDF)

For more information on visit www.captiveanimals.org.

Photo by Charles Lam CC

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