Yin Ru-Yi, Ye Yun-Chun, Newman Chris, Buesching Christina D, Macdonald David W, Luo Yi, Zhou Zhao-Min
Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, China.
Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Glob Ecol Conserv. 2020 Sep;23:e01047. doi: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e01047. Epub 2020 Apr 9.
The wildlife trade threatens global biodiversity and animal welfare, where parrots are among the taxa most frequently traded, supplying exotic pets and captive breeders worldwide. Using phylogenetic path analysis, we examine how biological factors interact with price to influence online protected parrot trade volumes in China, using transactions recorded for 46 species (n = 5862 individuals). Trade was greatest in smaller, faster breeding species that commanded a lower price. This price effect followed the economic law of demand, with Relatively Inelastic Demand (-0.758), outweighing indicators of 'quality' such as body coloration, and conservation status. We identify two areas of concern: those larger, slower-breeding, rarer species, even though sold at lower numbers, may be at conservation risk if harvested from the wild. In contrast, the sheer numbers (over 90% of the individuals were under median generation length, body mass and/or price) and ready availability of smaller and more common species comprises a substantial overall animal welfare issue, given that the capture, importation, or captive breeding of many parrot species in China is illegal and thus unregulated. Our investigation highlights the importance of properly understanding the internal relations among drivers of wildlife trade to inform appropriate management.
野生动物贸易威胁着全球生物多样性和动物福利，鹦鹉是交易最为频繁的物种之一，为全球各地提供 exotic pets 和圈养繁殖者。利用系统发育路径分析，我们研究了生物因素如何与价格相互作用，以影响中国在线保护鹦鹉的交易量，使用了 46 种（n = 5862 只个体）的交易记录。较小、繁殖速度较快且价格较低的物种交易量最大。这种价格效应遵循需求的经济规律，相对缺乏弹性的需求（-0.758）超过了诸如体色和保护状况等“质量”指标。我们确定了两个令人担忧的领域：那些体型较大、繁殖速度较慢、较为稀有的物种，即使交易量较低，但如果从野外捕获，可能面临保护风险。相比之下，数量众多（超过 90%的个体处于世代长度、体重和/或价格中位数以下）且易于获得的较小且更常见的物种构成了一个重大的总体动物福利问题，因为在中国，许多鹦鹉物种的捕获、进口或圈养繁殖都是非法的，因此不受监管。我们的调查强调了正确理解野生动物贸易驱动因素之间的内部关系以指导适当管理的重要性。
