Live reptile smuggling is predicted by trends in the legal exotic pet trade

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was funded by the Centre for Invasive Species Solutions (Project PO1-I-002). PG-D was partially supported by NERC grant NE/S011641/1 under the Newton Latam program. The authors acknowledge the Indigenous Traditional Owners of the land on which the University of Adelaide is built—the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We thank Jacob Maher and Talia Wittmann for sharing Australian zoo keeping data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Legal Recognition of the Value of Intergenerational Nurture: Grandparent Visitation Statutes in the Nineties

Individuals vary in their ability to disperse. Much of this variation can be described by covarying phenotypic traits that are related to dispersal (constituting the ‘dispersal phenotype’ or ‘dispersal syndrome’), but the nature of the associations among these traits is not well understood. Unravelling the associations among traits that potentially constitute the dispersal phenotype provides a foundation for understanding evolutionary trade-offs due to variation in dispersal. Here, we tested five predictions pertaining to the relationships among physiological, morphological and movement traits that are associated with dispersal, using a species with a long history as a laboratory model for studying ecological phenomena, red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum). We identified a dominant axis of movement ability that describes variation in dispersal-related movement traits. Individuals that scored positively on this axis moved at higher speed, travelled longer distances, had lower movement intermittency and dispersed quicker to a specified area. Relative leg length, but not body size nor routine metabolic rate related positively with movement ability, indicating a likely mechanistic relationship between increased stride length and movement ability. Our data suggest that the dispersal phenotype may be more strongly linked to morphological traits than physiological ones. We demonstrate that associations among many functional traits do not necessarily conform to a priori expectations, and predict that the substantial intraspecific variation in trait values may be important for selection. Movement is a complex behavioural trait, but it has a mechanistic basis in locomotor morphology that warrants further exploration

Shining a LAMP on the applications of isothermal amplification to monitoring illegal wildlife trade

Environmental biosecurity risks associated with the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) include the loss of biodiversity, threats to public health, and the proliferation of invasive alien species. To assist enforcement agencies in identifying trafficked species, rapid forensic techniques enable the detection of trace Environmental DNA (eDNA) where physical identification is not possible. Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) is an emerging technique with recent applications in biosecurity and forensic sciences, and with potential to function as a field-based detection tool. Here we provide an overview of current research that applies LAMP to human and wildlife forensic science, including identification of ornamental wildlife parts, consumer products, and invasive species monitoring and biosecurity detection. We discuss the current scope of LAMP as applied to various wildlife crime scenarios and biosecurity checkpoint monitoring, highlight the specificity, sensitivity, and robustness for these applications, and review the potential utility of LAMP for rapid field-based detection within the IWT. Based on our assessment of the literature we recommend broader interest, research, and investment in LAMP as an appropriate field-based species detection method for a wide range of environmental biosecurity scenarios

Australia’s wish list of exotic pets: biosecurity and conservation implications of desired alien and illegal pet species

Globalisation of the live pet trade facilitates major pathways for the transport and introduction of invasive alien species across longer distances and at higher frequencies than previously possible. Moreover, the unsustainable trade of species is a major driver for the over-exploitation of wild populations. Australia minimises the biosecurity and conservation risk of the international pet trade by implementing highly stringent regulations on the live import and keeping of alien pets beyond its international CITES obligations. However, the public desire to possess prohibited alien pets has never been quantified and represents a number of species that could be acquired illegally or legally under different future legislative conditions. As such, highly desirable species represent an ongoing conservation threat and biosecurity risk via the pet-release invasion pathway. We aimed to characterise the Australian desire for illegal alien pets and investigate potential sources of external information that can be utilised to predict future desire. Using public live import enquiry records from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment as a proxy for alien pet desire, we tested for differences in the proportion of species with threatened listings and records of invasions, after accounting for taxonomy. Additionally, we used a United States of America (U.S.) live imports dataset to infer pet demand in another Western market with less stringent regulations and determined whether species highly desired in Australia had higher U.S. trade demand than would be expected by chance. The Australian public desire for alien pets is heavily and significantly biased towards species threatened with extinction, species popular in the U.S. trade and species with a history of successful invasions. Not only does this indicate the potential impacts of pet desire on invasion risk and the conservation of threatened species, but we also highlight the potential role of the U.S. trade as an effective predictor for Australian desire. Our research emphasises the value of novel datasets in building predictive capacity for improved biosecurity awareness

Arnold_etal_2016_functecol_dataset

Data from laboratory experiments on that measured many physiological, morphological, and movement behaviour traits in Tribolium castaneum. The morphological traits were measured using ImageJ software from microscope images. Movement behaviour traits were from video recordings that were digitised in MATLAB and then calculated in Microsoft Excel. Other calculations or unit conversions were made either in Microsoft Excel or R 3.2.3. A key with descriptions and units of the measured traits is provided within the data file

Scalability of genetic biocontrols for eradicating invasive alien mammals

CRISPR-based gene drives offer novel solutions for controlling invasive alien species, which could ultimately extend eradication efforts to continental scales. Gene drives for suppressing invasive alien vertebrates are now under development. Using a landscape-scale individual-based model, we present the first estimates of times to eradication for long-lived alien mammals. We show that demography and life-history traits interact to determine the scalability of gene drives for vertebrate pest eradication. Notably, optimism around eradicating smaller-bodied pests (rodents and rabbits) with gene-drive technologies does not easily translate into eradication of larger-bodied alien species (cats and foxes)

Low detectability of alien reptiles can lead to biosecurity management failure: a case study from Christmas Island (Australia)

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