Warning about spider trade, including Vietnamese green spiders
Green spiders are being bought and sold on online spider websites – Photo: ALAMY
Experts say the growing demand for invertebrates, including spiders. These are easy animals to care for and can be transported very easily. Sellers can put the spiders in small boxes and then put them in envelopes to send.
“They don’t bark, they don’t need to go for a walk – you just put the spider in a glass box and put it on your shelf,” said Ernest Cooper, a Canadian wildlife seller, about the spider-raising movement. .
“They’re really little balls with legs, there are even fascinating colorful spiders, they’re especially appealing to keepers,” said Caroline Fukushima, postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum Finland and the paper’s author, explains further.
According to the newspaper New York Timesanalyzing online sales listings on websites by scientists found that more than 1,200 species of spiders were traded, of which only 2% were subject to international trade regulations.
Conservation biologist at the University of Hong Kong, Alice Hughes, said: “Spiders are being traded massively. Many creatures at the ‘spider market’ appear to have been hunted in the wild rather than in captivity. and the ecological impact of catching them is still unknown.”
Before this situation, Anne Danielson-Francois, arachnologist at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (USA), warned: “Spiders are being hunted in large numbers and they are not a resource. infinity”.
Besides, most likely those Spider collectors have acquired species not yet known to science. Biologist Hughes and her colleagues have identified about 100 species of trafficked spiders, described as variants of known species, such as the Vietnamese green spider. In many cases, these “variants” can actually be new species.
Experts also recommend that spider enthusiasts before buying make sure they know where the animal comes from. It is also important to find out if they are kept in captivity or caught in the wild.
In a separate analysis of the US Fish and Wildlife Records, researchers found about two-thirds of spiders were caught in the wild.
“As consumers, we have to think about our role in helping to conserve these animals,” Ms. Fukushima said.
Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (or CITES), only 30 species of spiders are allowed to trade. In addition,Individual countries may also have their own regulations, for example in the United States, authorities sometimes block the sale of undocumented spiders.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: tuoitre.vn – Read the original article here
