E-commerce promotes trade in invasive turtles in China

Journal article

Habitats in China are suited to many invasive alien turtle species. Consequently, raising turtles in aquaculture facilities, and the trade in turtles this supplies, poses risks to wetland habitats and ecological cascades when exotic turtles escape or are released deliberately. Online trade (e-commerce) is making an increasing contribution to turtle sales in China, seemingly driving greater demand and so potentially exacerbating these risks. Here we document the scale and spatial pattern of online sales of non-native turtles over 90 days via China’s Taobao.com e-commerce site. Recorded sales were biased toward the ecologically sensitive middle and lower Yangtze-river-basin for both North American slider (Trachemys scripta elegans; >840,000 individuals - 82.35% in middle and lower Yangtze-river-basin) and snapping turtles (Chelydridae spp.; >100,000 individuals - 68.26% in middle and lower Yangtze-river-basin). Concurrently, over 2008-2018, we found 104 mentions of feral turtle issues listed on Baidu News, where, among the 53 prefectures mentioned, issues with invasive populations were also focused predominantly in the middle and lower Yangtze-river-basin. Although circumstantial, this association implies that the substantial online sale of alien turtles is having detrimental effects in China’s Yangtze-river-basin. It is thus important to safeguard these wetland habitats of global biodiversity importance through developing better policies detecting and regulating invasive alien turtle issues in the future and through warning consumers about the ecological hazard their purchases risk.

Authors: Liu, S; Newman, C; Buesching, C; Macdonald, D; Zhang, Y

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Oryx
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 352-355
• Publication date: 2020-01-17
• Acceptance date: 2019-07-17
• DOI: 10.1017/S0030605319001030
• EISSN: 1365-3008
• ISSN: 0030-6053
• Keywords: Yangtze basin; chelydra; invasive turtles; online trade; Asia; macrochelys; trachemys