• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

  • Home
  • About Earth Wise
  • Where to Listen
  • All Articles
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Podcast / Exotic Pets Can Become Problems

Exotic Pets Can Become Problems

August 26, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Each year, millions of exotic animals are sold as pets around the world.  The term “exotic” lacks a set definition but is generally used to refer to an animal that’s wild or more unusual than standard pets, like cats and dogs. 

The exotic pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry,  involving tens of millions of individual animals from thousands of species, including reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, and mammals.

Some of the exotic pet trade is legal, but a lot of it isn’t.  Many animals are illegally captured from the wild to meet the global demand for exotic pets. 

People often purchase exotic animals without completely understanding the consequences.  Some exotic pets, for example, can live nearly twice as long as the average dog.  Caring for exotic pets can be both expensive and risky, since they are largely undomesticated (and therefore can have unpredictable behavior).

As a result, it’s not uncommon for owners to release exotic pets intentionally.  When this happens, the consequences can be catastrophic.  Sometimes the animal dies from starvation or predation, but in other instances, the animal proliferates and becomes an invasive species.

Invasive species are the second largest driver of biodiversity loss worldwide, and they cost the U.S. $120 billion a year. 

According to an academic review recently published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the exotic pet trade is one of the primary causes of the spread of invasive species and has fueled the establishment of hundreds of them.  Tegus, Burmese pythons, and red lionfish are examples of pets-turned-pests. 

The best way to combat this trend is through education, detection, and rapid response. 

**********

Web Links

Why you should never release exotic pets into the wild

Photo, posted September 19, 2010, courtesy of Mike Baird via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Tagged With: amphibians, animals, behavior, biodiversity, birds, burmese python, capture, cats, combat, consequences, costly, detection, dogs, education, exotic, exotic pets, fish, illegal, invasive species, invasives, mammals, people, pests, pet trade, pets, predation, problems, proliferates, rapid response, red lionfish, release, reptiles, starvation, tegus, United States, unpredictable, unusual, wild

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Episodes

  • Offshore Wind Industry In New York | Earth Wise
  • Protected Areas Are Not Protecting Insects | Earth Wise
  • Self-Deicing Roads | Earth Wise
  • Sea Level Rise And Global Security | Earth Wise
  • Keeping The Keeling Curve Going | Earth Wise

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)

Copyright © 2023 ·