E-commerce promotes trade in invasive turtles in China

Global invasion and biosecurity risk from the online trade in ornamental crayfish

Trade in undomesticated ornamental animals has rapidly expanded beyond brick-and-mortar retail stores to now include growing numbers of internet marketplaces. The growing volume, diversity, and origins of invasive non-native species in trade challenge already weak national biosecurity policies. Despite widespread focus on vertebrates, many knowledge gaps exist regarding the online global trade of ornamental invertebrates. We conducted the first global assessment of the online trade in and associated invasion risk of freshwater crayfishes, which are increasingly popular aquarium animals. We systematically examined e-commerce marketplaces in multiple languages, scrapping information that included species identity, price, quantity, and shipping designation from each crayfish listing. Next, we combined geographic pathways of shipping associated with online trade (introduction risk) and environmental suitability modeling (establishment risk) to estimate global risk of non-native crayfish invasion risk. We identified hundreds of online marketplaces and thousands of sale listings in 33 countries (5 continents) involving 60 species and representing a selling value of ∼US$1.5 million. Invasion risk of non-native crayfish in trade was widespread, with geographic hotspots coinciding with both elevated opportunities for introduction (greater shipping offerings) and establishment. Precise characterization of the online species trade is fundamental to support new and reformed biosecurity policies, build industry partnerships, and design educational campaigns to prevent species invasions through trade. We found that the taxonomy, geography, and economics of the global online ornamental crayfish trade are vast and require greater attention.

Deep learning-based image classification of turtles imported into Korea

Although turtles play a key role in maintaining healthy and balanced environments, these are endangered due to global trade to meet the high demand for food, medicine, and pets in Asia. In addition, imported non-native turtles have been controlled as alien invasive species in various countries, including Korea. Therefore, a rapid and accurate classification of imported turtles is needed to conserve and detect those in native ecosystems. In this study, eight Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) models using different backbone networks were used to classify 36 imported turtles in Korea. The images of these species were collected from Google and were identified using morphological features. Then, these were divided into 70% for training, 15% for validation, and 15% for test sets. In addition, data augmentation was applied to the training set to prevent overfitting. Among the eight models, the Resnet18 model showed the highest mean Average Precision (mAP) at 88.1% and the fastest inference time at 0.024 s. The average correct classification rate of 36 turtles in this model was 82.8%. The results of this study could help in management of the turtle trade, specifically in improving detection of alien invasive species in the wild.

Online classified adverts reflect the broader United Kingdom trade in turtles and tortoises rather than drive it

Online sales are increasingly a route by which exotic animals are sold in the global pet trade. There are numerous types of online platforms and transaction types, and dedicated classified advertisement sites are a popular means of buying and selling animals. Despite their large and increasing use, we have a relatively poor understanding of the number of, and taxonomic variation in, the animals sold online. This information may be key in efforts to optimise the welfare of the animals being sold, and the ethics and sustainability of the trade via that platform. To fill this knowledge gap, we monitored and analysed the advertisements of chelonians (turtles and tortoises) placed on one of the United Kingdom's largest dedicated classified ads sites, www.pets4homes.co.uk, over the course of a year, from July 2020 until June 2021. We analysed temporal, taxonomic, and advertiser related trends in the volumes of advertisements placed and compared the prices and the sentiment of language within adverts for different species. We found that the species advertised, the prices requested, and infrequent use of the site by most advertisers is consistent with most adverts being for animals being resold by casual users. Further, we found that turtles were consistently advertised for lower prices and in multiples than tortoises, and that the language with which they were advertised was less positive. We conclude that on this website the online trade reflects the broader trade, rather than drives the sales of chelonians in the UK, and that any interventions aiming to improve welfare and sustainability would be better placed earlier in the supply chain.

Online sale of small turtles circumvents public health regulations in the United States

In the United States (U.S.), pet turtles have been associated with outbreaks of salmonellosis, a serious and sometimes-fatal intestinal illness caused by Salmonella bacteria, with nearly 300,000 people being infected in some years. Children are particularly susceptible because of their propensity to put items, including small turtles, in their mouths. In 1975, a U.S. federal regulation prohibited the sale of turtles <4 inches (101.6 mm) in size, except for the purposes of export, scientific, or educational purposes. This regulation was established to reduce the incidence of salmonellosis, particularly in small children. Previous research has not evaluated the availability of turtles <4 inches in size on websites selling wildlife. We monitored 16 websites in 2021 and quantified listings of small turtles. We determined whether information on Salmonella, the 1975 federal regulation, or related state regulations were provided on the websites and determined legality of sales of small turtles by state regulations. We found that all 16 websites openly advertised and sold turtles <4 inches in size, but only half of these websites provided information about Salmonella and/or the federal regulation. These websites required buyers to confirm that they were not purchasing a turtle as a pet, thereby putting the onus on the consumer to adhere to the regulation. We documented 515 listings of turtles <4 inches in size, including 47 species and one hybrid. Our study has demonstrated that internet sales of small turtles currently represent part of the thriving online pet trade in the U.S. Enforcement of the federal regulation faces jurisdictional challenges in most states. Therefore, we recommend continued public education campaigns by public health agencies in the U.S. to help reduce the risk that pet turtle ownership presents.

E-Commerce Information System Management Based on Data Mining and Neural Network Algorithms

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has led to rapid development in various fields. It has many hidden related customer behavior information and future development trends in the e-commerce information system. The data mining technology can dig out useful information and promote the development of e-commerce. This research analyzes the significance and advantages of data mining technology in the application of e-commerce management systems and analyzes the related technologies of data mining and future trend prediction. This research has taken the advantages of clustering and naive Bayesian methods in data mining to classify product information and purchase preferences and other information and mine the associated data. Then, the nonlinear data processing advantages of neural networks are used to predict future purchasing power. The results show that data mining technology and neural networks have high accuracy in predicting future consumer purchasing power information. The correlation coefficient between real consumption data and predicted consumption data reached 0.9785, and the maximum relative average error was only 2.32%. It fully shows that data mining technology can obtain some unrecognizable related information and future consumption trends in e-commerce systems, and neural networks can also predict future consumption power and consumption patterns well.

Dissecting the illegal pangolin trade in China: An insight from seizures data reports

Wildlife trafficking poses a major threat to global biodiversity. Species such as pangolins are particularly vulnerable and trade continues almost unabated despite numerous interventions aimed at eradicating illegal wildlife trade. Despite restrictions on the pangolin trade, thousands of pangolins continue to be intercepted annually. We focused on China because of the recent delisting of pangolins from the Chinese pharmacopeia, and their removal from healthcare insurance, despite deeply ingrained traditions of having pangolins for ethno-medicinal use. We collated pangolin interception data from public online media seizure reports to characterize the pangolin trade within China, and found that a total of 326 independent seizures equivalent to 143,130 pangolins (31,676 individuals and 222,908 kg of scale) were reported in 26 provinces. Pangolin domestic seizures are greatest in the southern cities of Dehong, Fangchenggang, and Guangzhou. Also, we found 17 countries within the global pangolins range which were the major source of the pangolin shipments to China. The number of arrests and convictions was much lower than the number of pangolin incidents reported. Our results show a significant increase in the volume of scales and number of live pangolin seizures after amended endangered species law came into effect in 2018, and recorded the highest number of individual pangolin interceptions. China has shown increasing wildlife seizures over time, owing partly to emergent trends in the international wildlife trade as well as increasing global demand for ethnomedicine. The future eradication of illegal wildlife trade in China is dependent not only on stringent border control and offender prosecution but also the; removal of other threatened species from the pharmacopeia and healthcare insurance which includes wildlife derivatives. Furthermore, our work highlights importance of current policy intervention to combat the pangolin trade within China, and the need for further interventions both within China and in export countries.

Understanding wildlife crime in China: Socio-demographic profiling and motivation of offenders

Wildlife crime presents a growing threat to the integrity of ecological communities. While campaigns have raised consumer awareness, little is known about the socio-demographic profile of wildlife offenders, or how to intervene. Using data from China Judgements Online (2014–2018), we documented 4,735 cases, involving 7,244 offenders who smuggled, hunted, transported, sold and/or purchased protected species in contravention of China’s Criminal Law. Offenders were predominantly men (93.0% of 7,143 offenders), aged 30–44 (43.9% of 4,699), agricultural workers (48.4% of 3,960), with less schooling (78.6% of 4,699 < senior secondary school). Socio-economic profiles related to crime seriousness, the type of illegal activity, motivation and taxon involved. These generalizations reveal scope to tailor specific intervention and mitigation approaches to offender profiles, through public information campaigns, proactive incentives opposed by punitive disincentives, and provision of alternative incomes.