(c) Chris Martin Bahr/WWF-Canon
By Peter Mosley
Scientists have sounded the alert over possible "dirty tricks" in the international trading of Poison Arrow Frogs, which are increasingly popular as exotic pets.
They say there are suspicious discrepancies in the numbers of frogs reported being traded, with thousands apparently unaccounted for, and have called for further investigations. Unscrupulous traders may even be "laundering" wild frogs - passing them off as captive-bred frogs.
Vincent Nijman, of the Oxford (UK) Wildlife Trade Research Group, and Chris Shepherd of the Malaysia-based Southeast Asia division of TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring service, rang the alarm bells in a study published in the journal "Biodiversity and Conservation."
They analysed international trade records reported to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) between 2004 and 2008 covering the movement of poison arrow frogs, a species native to South and Central America, and "uncovered a number of discrepancies," according to a TRAFFIC news release.
"Kazakhstan, for example, reported no trade whatsoever in poison arrow frogs, but between 2004 and 2008, Thailand claimed to have imported more than 2,500 originating from Kazakhstan, via Lebanon.
“It is probably highly significant that exports from Kazakhstan to Thailand went via Lebanon, a non-Party to CITES who, therefore, would be under no obligation to report the transfer,” said Chris Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.
“Further investigations should be carried out into the reasons why this particular route was reportedly used and authorities should also be alerted to the possibility that specimens declared as captive-bred could be wild-caught and are being laundered into the international trade”.
Many poison arrow frogs are brightly coloured to warn-off predators, but their markings have made them attractive as pets in Europe and North America, and increasingly in Asia. They are called poison arrow frogs because their skin secretes toxins used by indigenous people in South America as poison on the tips of blow-darts.
“The popularity of poison arrow frogs as pets has led to some species being over-harvested in the wild, putting them at risk,” said Nijman.
In total, the analysis found that more than 63,000 poison arrow frogs of 32 species were traded internationally between 2004 and 2008. For 21 species the majority of frogs were reported as captive-bred. Around a fifth were destined for markets in Asia - Japan, Thailand and Taiwan - where keeping exotic pets is becoming increasingly popular.
Five of the species being traded are regarded by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as at risk of global extinction. They include the Golden Poison Frog phyllobates terribilis, an endangered species found only in tiny areas on the Pacific coast of Colombia. Of 342 reported being traded, 287 were claimed to have been captive-bred, 200 of them in Kazakhstan.
Similarly, 100 of the 213 Epipedobates tricolor reported being traded — a species known from just seven localities in Ecuador — were said to be captive-bred in Kazakhstan, while 200 of the 220 reported captive-bred Black-legged Poison Frogs Phyllobates bicolor, a "Near Threatened" species, were also claimed to have originated in the Central Asian country.
The authors recommend better accuracy in reporting and investigations into the origin of pets in international trade to ensure wild-caught specimens are not being laundered under the guise of being captive-bred.
Last month, representatives of 175 member governments of CITES met in Doha, Qatar and voted for stronger controls over the international trade in Central American treefrogs, and effectively banned all commercial trade in Kaiser’s Spotted Newts from Iran.
“While a CITES listing will help both the treefrogs and the newt threatened by trade, as the poison arrow frog case demonstrates, a listing is only useful if it is properly adhered to,” said Nijman.
Notes
All species of poison arrow frog (genera Dendrobates, Phyllobates, Epipedobates and Cryptophyllobates) are listed in Appendix II of CITES, thereby regulating international commercial trade in the species.
The paper by Vincent Nijman and Chris R. Shepherd "The role of Asia in the global trade in CITES II-listed poison arrow frogs: hopping from Kazakhstan to Lebanon to Thailand and beyond" is published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. It is available online at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/b013x81t3306565k/fulltext.pdf
For further information:
Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia (in Malaysia) Tel: +603 78803940, cell: +6 012 234 0790, E-mail: cstsea@po.jaring.my
Elizabeth John, Senior Communications Officer, TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Tel: +603 7880 3940, Email: jlizzjohn@yahoo.com
Richard Thomas, Communications Co-ordinator, TRAFFIC. Tel: +44 1223 279068, mob + 44 752 6646 216.
E-mail richard.thomas@traffic.org
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