About 70% of the trade in live cheetahs is unfolding on social media, new research has found.
About 70% of the trade in live cheetahs is unfolding on social media, new research has found.
The report by the wildlife trade monitoring network, Traffic, into the international online trade in live cheetahs showed a growing online trend in illegal trade, mainly for use as exotic pets.
This is “putting further pressure on an already at-risk and iconic big cat”, the report noted.
The cheetah, which is classified as vulnerable, is one of the most threatened big cats globally. Only found in 9% of their historical range, cheetahs are limited to highly fragmented pockets in Africa and Asia. Just 6 000 mature individuals are estimated to remain in the wild.
“Cheetahs are especially vulnerable to exploitation because of the simultaneous threats affecting their survival, such as habitat loss and human wildlife conflict,” according to the report. “Therefore, any exploitation of wild individuals through trade could have a detrimental effect on the viability of the global population.”
Cheetahs are listed in Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), which prohibits the international trade in wild-caught cheetah specimens for commercial purposes, except for annual quotas for hunting trophies and live specimens granted to Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
South Africa is the only country with Cites-registered captive breeding facilities where live specimens can be legally traded internationally, mainly for zoos and safari parks.
“The proliferation of the use of the internet to trade in live cheetahs has been a subject of growing concern in recent years. Traders make use of various platforms, including social media, e-commerce platforms and mobile phone applications,” according to the report.
A total of 222 unique URLs were found over just six months, showing “alarming trends” in the online trade of live cheetahs, according to Traffic.
Nearly half of these URLs indicated an intention to trade in live cheetahs, and 70% of all URLs were found on social media platforms. The online survey found that 26% of links were found on e-commerce platforms and dedicated websites, while others were discovered in online forums or news articles.
“Traders appear to be putting more effort into staying anonymous by creating multiple user profiles, using stronger privacy settings, and carefully avoiding any potentially incriminating ‘transactional’ language.”
Several users previously identified as online cheetah traders have changed the security and privacy settings of their online profiles to restrict public access and evade detection. “Some avoid using sales language, just posting pictures of the cheetahs for sale.”
According to the report, several user profiles, which previously identified as advertising live cheetahs for sale, removed or deleted the relevant posts. Additionally, in many incidents where recent posts involving live cheetahs were found on these profiles, the intention to trade was no longer clear, making it difficult to ascertain the user’s intent.
Several new profiles were linked to previously identified user profiles (in many cases, it appeared to be the same individual creating a new profile).
“Based on this survey’s findings, it appeared that social media was the dominant mechanism by which internet users attempted to trade live cheetahs or display live cheetahs as pets.”
E-commerce platforms, online forums and specifically dedicated websites have been seemingly created to trade many exotic wildlife pets. The report said that nearly 65% of the URLs analysed also contained evidence of other wildlife in trade or as pets, including other big cats (lions, tigers, leopards), reptiles, birds, antelope, primates and other mammals.
These were found in the same or in separate listings by the same user. In some incidences, there were fewer posts of live cheetahs found in the past five years and, instead, more posts involving other big cats such as lions and tigers
The top five countries with URLs flaunting cheetahs as pets include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, South Africa and the United States. The regions and countries identified from more recent online posts are similar to those from the baseline dataset used in this survey.
Countries in Western Asia, specifically Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen, were identified as major role players.
Discrepancies appeared when Cites reported imports of live cheetahs, and the number of URLs found involving live cheetahs was compared. These discrepancies existed for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
“This mismatch is likely explained if the animals were imported illegally or they have been bred within the borders of these countries without reports to the International Cheetah Studbook.”
The report notes that according to the Cites trade database, South Africa, China and the US are the major importers of live cheetahs from captive-bred populations, primarily destined for zoos.
South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe are the major range state exporters of live cheetahs, again with descriptions of captive-bred individuals for zoos, but some were also found to be sourced from wild populations.
Comparisons between Traffic research and Cites trade data showed discrepancies for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Yemen that point towards illegal imports or unregulated captive breeding, “both significant threats to the species’ longevity”.