Crime against wildlife: investigation detected 230 publications of illegal trade of jaguar

Ívina Garcia – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The study published in bioRvix, an international repository of pre-publications, pointed out the existence of illegal trade in jaguar parts in at least 19 countries. The research of the Wild Conservation Society (WCS), with support from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), involved more than 20 researchers and surveyed 31 platforms for online and illegal trade of the feline.

The publication details that 230 ads in seven languages were found, in the period between 2019 and 2020, for sales of parts of the animal.

According to the preliminary report, 21 ads were detected in online marketplaces, two in search engines, five in social networks, two in video sites and one in a blog. In all, 579 images were collected and in at least 71 publications images of jaguars were confirmed, containing 125 body parts.

Among the most illegally traded parts are teeth and skin, with 95 publications of the former and 22 of the latter. Five pieces of jaguar heads, two whole bodies and one publication of skin parts were also detected.

The publications were evaluated by technicians, who were able to identify, among the 230 posts, 71 that could confirm being jaguar. Among them, 42 were pieces identified as teeth, 21 were skins, five heads, two bodies and one part of skin.

In Brazil, commercial hunting – that is, hunting carried out to subsidise the market for hide, skin and meat – has been prohibited by law since 1967. According to Law No. 9,605 of 12 February 1998: “To kill, pursue, hunt, trap, capture, use native or migratory wild fauna specimens without the proper permission, license or authorisation from the competent authority, or in disagreement with that obtained”, may result in detention of six months to one year and a fine.

To CENARIUM MAGAZINE, the specialist in combating wildlife trafficking from WCS Brasil, Antônio F. Carvalho, explained that the illegal trade in wildlife is a serious threat to conservation, this because jaguars are essential to the food chain of the regions where it lives.

“Indiscriminate removal of individuals due to trapping or hunting can lead species to local collapse, culminating in the disappearance of species in many regions and imbalances in the food chain”, says the expert.

He explains that this chain moves live animals that can “hitchhike” parasites and genes to regions where they do not naturally occur, which can result in irreparable damage to native wild populations.

Percentage

According to the study, most of the ads (50.7%) were in Spanish, followed by Portuguese (25.4%), Chinese (22.5%) and French (1.4%). The publications were mainly in Mexico and Brazil, on 12 different platforms, accompanied by images identified as jaguar by the researchers: 74.6% were in social reses and 24.4% in online markets.

The jaguar teeth detected in 156 publications were most frequent in Mexico, China, Bolivia and Brazil, offering at least 367 teeth in total. In addition, 12 publications selling claws were also detected in Mexico and one in Costa Rica.

Furries, meanwhile, were identified only in Latin America, mainly in Brazil, with seven detected skins, Peru with six, Bolivia with three, Mexico with two skins and one part skin, Venezuela and Nicaragua with one.

The study also identified a small amount of illegal bone trading through the searches, but it was not possible to verify the images, but the document states that it obtained enough evidence to confirm the existence of online bone trading in the countries.