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The illegal wildlife trade is a likely source of alien species

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dc.contributor.authorGarcía-Díaz, P.
dc.contributor.authorRoss, J.
dc.contributor.authorWoolnough, A.
dc.contributor.authorCassey, P.
dc.date.issued2017
dc.description.abstractThe illegal wildlife trade is driving biodiversity declines worldwide, yet its role in transporting alien species with a high likelihood of establishment is seldom considered. We demonstrate the threat posed by the illegal reptile trade in Australia. We modeled the establishment success of alien reptiles in Australia, revealing the importance of both minimum number of release events and the body length of the species. Using our model, we screened 28 alien reptiles illegally traded in Victoria, Australia. Establishment risk varied widely across species, and a whole-pathway analysis revealed that 5 out of the 28 species (17.9%) are likely to become established if released. The global dimension of the illegal wildlife trade calls for a tight transnational collaboration, via multilateral cooperation agreements arranging the share of resources. Complementary to this, we encourage conducting campaigns to raise public awareness about the risk and legal consequences of participating in the wildlife black market.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityPablo García-Díaz, Joshua V. Ross, Andrew P. Woolnough, and Phillip Cassey
dc.identifier.citationConservation Letters, 2017; 10(6):690-698
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/conl.12301
dc.identifier.issn1755-263X
dc.identifier.issn1755-263X
dc.identifier.orcidRoss, J. [0000-0002-9918-8167]
dc.identifier.orcidCassey, P. [0000-0002-2626-0172]
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/106932
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherJohn Wiley & Sons
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP140102319
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT0991420
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FT130100254
dc.rights© 2016 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12301
dc.subjectAlien reptile; Australia; establishment success; multilateral cooperation; propagule pressure; risk management; transport pathway
dc.titleThe illegal wildlife trade is a likely source of alien species
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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