Journal article
Alien invaders and reptile traders: What drives the live animal trade in South Africa?
NJ Van Wilgen, JRU Wilson, J Elith, BA Wintle, DM Richardson
Animal Conservation | Published : 2010
Abstract
The global trade in reptiles for pets has grown rapidly in recent decades. Some species introduced by the pet trade have established and become invasive, for example the Burmese python in Florida. Although there are currently no invasive alien reptiles in South Africa, the last 30 years has seen an exponential increase in the number of introductions of an increasing number of species from an increasing number of countries. We determine and analyse the presence and abundance of species in the South African reptile trade. This serves as a background to efforts to overhaul the management and regulation of this trade, particularly given the need for increasingly objective risk-assessment protoco..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We thank R. Reed, B. W. van Wilgen and an anonymous reviewer for useful comments on the paper, A. Bauer, for commenting on species lists and taxonomy, and E. Baard, N. Bam, D. Hignett, S. Hughes, L. Lotter, D. Paulse, L. Swart and several others who asked to remain anonymous, for giving of their time for interviews regarding permitting as well as I. du Plessis (Johannesburg Zoo) for comments on species traits and abundance, A. Naude (Transvaal Herpetological Society) for providing estimates of species abundance, and R. Potts and A. Potts for help in data collection. Financial support for this work came from the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis, the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, the Wilhelm Frank Bursary Fund, Cape Action for People and the Environment, and the Hans Sigrist Foundation.