Status and trends in the international wildlife trade in Chameleons with a focus on Tanzania
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Date
2024-05-16
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
PLOS ONE
Abstract
Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive group of reptiles, mainly found in
Africa, which have high local endemism and face significant threats from the international
wildlife trade. We review the scale and structure of international chameleon trade, with a
focus on collection in and exports from Tanzania; a hotspot of chameleon diversity. Analysis
used data from the CITES Trade Database 2000–2019, combined with assessment of
online trade, and on-the-ground surveys in Tanzania in 2019. Between 2000 and 2019,
1,128,776 live chameleons from 108 species were reported as exported globally, with
193,093 of these (from 32 species) exported by Tanzania. Both global and Tanzanian cha-
meleon exports declined across the study period, driven by decreased trade in generalist
genera. Whilst the proportion of captive-bred individuals increased across time for the gen-
eralist taxa, the majority of range-restricted taxa in trade remained largely wild-sourced. For
Tanzanian exports, 41% of chameleons were from one of the 23 endemic species, and 10
of the 12 Tanzanian endemic species in trade are categorised as threatened with extinction
by IUCN. In terms of online trade, of the 42 Tanzanian species assessed, there was evi-
dence of online sale for 83.3% species, and 69% were actively for sale with prices listed.
Prices were on average highest for Trioceros species, followed by Kinyongia, Rieppeleon,
Rhampholeon, and Chameleo. Field work in Tanzania provided evidence that the historic
harvest of endemic chameleon species has been higher than the quantities of these species
reported as exported by Tanzania in their annual trade reports to CITES. However, we
found no field evidence for trade in 2020 and 2021, in line with Tanzanian regulations that
applied a blanket ban on all exports of live wild animals. Literature evidence, however, sug-
gests that illegal trade continued to Europe from seizures of Tanzanian chameleon species
in Austria in 2021.
Description
Journal Articles
Keywords
International wildlife trade, Tanzania, Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae), international chameleon trade, Chameleon diversity
Citation
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300371