Interview: A Conservation Biologist on the Exotic Pet Trade

"People assume anything sold in a shop is captive-bred, and for a lot of species that simply isn't true," our interviewee explains. Wild-caught animals are still legally and illegally traded in large numbers, particularly for species that are difficult or commercially unattractive to breed, such as many wild-caught chameleons and certain frog species.

Labelling laundering — declaring wild-caught animals as captive-bred to bypass import restrictions — is a documented problem in several exporting countries. "A price that's unusually low for a species that's genuinely hard to breed should make a buyer ask questions, not feel like a bargain," she says.

Buying directly from a breeder who can describe their breeding pairs, show hatching or clutch records, and answer detailed husbandry questions confidently is a stronger signal than any certificate alone. For CITES-listed species, ask specifically to see the paperwork rather than taking a seller's word for it.

She is careful not to overstate what any individual buyer can control: "Even careful buyers can be deceived. The bigger lever is demand — species that are hard to keep well and have poor survival rates in the trade shouldn't be popular pets in the first place, whatever the paperwork says."