US research team: Exotic species sold in Philippines' black market

(First of two articles)

LAWRENCE, Kansas —  A team of undercover researchers based in the United States recently discovered the Philippines' wide-ranging black market of exotic animals—a criminal trade they described "bizarre and grotesque."

Rafe Brown, curator-in-charge of the herpetology division at the University of Kansas' (KU) Biodiversity Institute, said Manila's trade of animals ranges from pet stores "with many endangered and illegal species hidden behind the scenes" to major international wildlife violators and wholesale smuggling rackets.

"The operations involve everything from sea turtles, to ivory, to tiger parts and rhino horns," Brown said. "These involve private individuals, pet store owners, politicians, zoo keepers and corrupt government officials."

Brown has devoted years to cataloging and conserving the biodiversity of the Philippines, a nation he views as an ecological treasure house.

Decrying the illegal trade, he said many animals are sold as pets, "captive breeding" stock and zoo specimens.

"Many are sold as food, many are slaughtered and sold as parts for 'medicinal' purposes and aphrodisiacs, and many are huge, high-stakes status symbols for the wealthy elite—such as tigers, monkeys and Komodo dragons," he said.

In one of their visits to such markets, Brown and his colleagues discovered new species of lizards also being peddled.

They have published descriptions of the new species in the journals Zootaxa, along with an analysis of Manila's illegal pet and bush-meat trade in the journal Biological Conservation. A film documentary about their remarkable discovery is similarly in the works.

From other animals procured from Manila's black market, the KU-based research team—Brown and colleagues, Luke Welton from Brigham Young University, Cameron Siler from the University of Oklahoma and Mae Diesmos from the University of Santo Tomas—found that half of the time traders had misled them, reporting "exotic" locales for their animal wares in hope of getting higher prices.

"We used standard DNA sequencing technology, determined the genetic types of the samples from traders, compared them to our wild-caught, known-locality samples and then 'ground-truthed' what the traders told us versus what the genetics inferred," Brown said.

According to Brown, much of the illicit trade has recently moved online, where traders utilize social networks to hawk animals.

While criminal trading of endangered species can still  be found in the streets of the Philippines, much of the operations have been moved online. Brendan Lynch/KU News Service

"Whereas two years ago, deals were frequently made in the back alleys of streets of Manila, most are now made online, using the most rapidly growing scourge of wildlife protection — Facebook," he said.

"Today, Facebook is the primary means with which unscrupulous individuals deal in wares of illegally harvested wild animals."

The National Science Foundation funded this work. The Philippine Biodiversity Management Bureau and the KU Biodiversity Institute supported Brown and his students throughout the lengthy period that it took to complete the undercover research. Other team members included Arvin Diesmos, Emerson Sy and Vicente "Enteng" Yngente.

ALSO READ: Undercover researchers: Never-before-seen lizards for sale in Philippines

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This story is contributed by the University of Kansas News Service and revised for publishing by Philstar.com.