Segura Amalia, Delibes-Mateos Miguel, Acevedo Pelayo
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Cinegéticos, IREC (UCLM-CSIC-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo, 12, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA-CSIC), Campo Santo de los Mártires 7, 14004 Córdoba, Spain.
Animals (Basel). 2020 Feb 7;10(2):265. doi: 10.3390/ani10020265.
The trading and collection of wild animals as pets may be cause for concern regarding animal welfare and species conservation. These concerns can be exemplified by Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (), a long-living species whose use as pets is long established. The human dimension plays a major role in the wildlife for the pet collection, and is particularly important in countries like Morocco, where this might pose a threat to the conservation of the species involved. This study, which is based on a questionnaire survey (n = 480 participants), documents the fact that many people in Morocco keep tortoises as pets: 55% of the participants in the survey and over two tortoises/person. Importantly, most captive tortoises, particularly juveniles, had been collected directly from wild populations by their owners (42%, n = 264). In general, the tortoise owners had limited knowledge of their tortoises' habits and requirements, although rural people were more likely to acknowledge that the tortoise is a wild and threatened species. Our study reveals that non-commercial collection is a common activity in Morocco that may threaten wild tortoise populations and hence species conservation, and it could have consequences regarding the welfare of the animals. We were also able to identify the profile of people towards whom education campaigns should be directed in order to reduce the number of tortoises collected from wild populations. Additional field research should also be conducted to quantify the impact of pet collection on wild tortoise populations.
将野生动物作为宠物进行交易和收集可能引发对动物福利和物种保护的担忧。地中海 spur-thighed 陆龟（）就是一个例证，这是一种寿命很长的物种，长期以来一直被用作宠物。在野生动物用于宠物收集方面，人类因素起着主要作用，在摩洛哥这样的国家尤为重要，因为这可能对相关物种的保护构成威胁。这项基于问卷调查（n = 480 名参与者）的研究记录了摩洛哥许多人将陆龟作为宠物饲养的事实：55% 的调查参与者每人饲养两只以上陆龟。重要的是，大多数圈养陆龟，尤其是幼龟，是其主人直接从野生种群中收集的（42%，n = 264）。总体而言，陆龟主人对其陆龟的习性和需求了解有限，不过农村居民更有可能承认陆龟是野生且受威胁的物种。我们的研究表明，非商业性收集在摩洛哥是一项常见活动，可能威胁野生陆龟种群，进而影响物种保护，并且可能对动物福利产生影响。我们还能够确定应该针对哪些人群开展教育活动，以减少从野生种群中收集的陆龟数量。还应开展更多实地研究，以量化宠物收集对野生陆龟种群的影响。
