Most people think of dogs as being humans’ best friends. But as far back as 2008, a survey by the British Federation for Herpetologists found that reptiles outnumbered dogs as the top pet in the UK, with an estimated eight million being kept in homes across the country.
Despite this, many of these animals are not bred in captivity but are instead captured in the wild with international regulations on trade applying to less than 10 per cent of the more than 11,000 known reptile species on Earth.
Now, a study from Thailand's Suranaree University of Technology and the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) has found that the lack of regulation is leading to huge numbers of reptile species being exploited.
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The researchers pieced together data from existing trade databases with an online survey of reptile retailers to create a global estimate of the reptile trade including the endangered status of species, and the extent of wild capture.
“Based on two international trade databases and information scraped from 24,000 web pages in five languages, we found that over 36 per cent of reptile species are in trade - totalling almost 4,000 species,” said Dr Alice Hughes of XTBG.
They also found that about three-quarters of reptile species being traded are not covered by international trade regulations, and many of these are endangered or range-restricted species, especially from hotspots within Asia. Furthermore, around 90 per cent of traded reptile species and half of the individual traded animals are estimated to be captured from the wild.
"If we fail to mitigate the impacts of unregulated, but legal trade, small-ranged and endemic species may be the next victims of the ongoing biodiversity crisis," said Dr Hughes.
Reader Q&A: How do chamleons change colour?
Asked by:Abigail Jones, York
Chameleons may be the masters of disguise but their motivation for changing colour is often more to do with temperature regulation and communication than camouflage. They possess special cells in their skin called chromatophores that reflect light and contain sacs of different coloured pigments. A change in body temperature or mood will result in the nervous system triggering the expansion or contraction of particularchromatophores.
Incredibly, the chameleon can literally ‘pick ’n’ mix’ the colours that are created during this mind-boggling process – all within seconds of responding to an external environmental change or the presence of a potential mate or enemy.
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