Online ads reveal scale — and gaps — in amphibian pet trade into US

Much of the pet trade in amphibians is conducted online, but it’s not well understood. Herpetologist Devin Edmonds with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently mapped out the trade in nonnative amphibians sold in the United States in a study published in the journal Biological Conservation. Edmonds and his colleagues scanned through online classified ads for nonnative amphibians from 2004 to 2024 and compiled a database of 8,500 listings for 301 amphibian species — including frogs and salamanders — for sale in the U.S. and originating from around the world. The researchers then compared the classified ads database with amphibian import records from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They found there were no import records for 44 of the species in their database, and concluded these species were likely imported illegally. The authors say some of the animals may have been smuggled into the U.S. by fudging their identity. For example, they suggest that Caatinga horned frogs (Ceratophrys joazeirensis) could have been smuggled from Brazil into neighboring Suriname, which has its own species of horned frog, Ceratophrys cornuta. The Caatinga frogs were likely then imported into the U.S. simply labeled as Ceratophrys, leaving authorities ignorant about exactly which species they were. Once in the U.S., they could be bred in captivity for sale. The researchers’ database shows that 30 amphibian species were offered for sale more often than computer modeling would suggest. They interpreted this to mean that these species are being successfully bred in captivity and the offspring…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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