The Internet: a dangerous place for wild animals

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 15, 2012 a girl strokes a Hermann's tortoise in a flat in Paris. International Fund for Animal Welfare NGO warned on May 23, 2018, that online commerce threatens protected species. Experts from the organistaion carried out a study during six weeks in 2017 looking at classified ads posted online in France, Russia, Germany and Great Britain and found that 11,772 specimens of endangered wildlife were listed in 5,381 ads and messages on 106 online retail sites and 4 social networks, for an estimated amount of 3,2 million euros. According to the study, 80 percent of the proposed specimens were alive: mainly reptiles (particularly land and marine turtles which represent 45 percent of total ads) and birds (gray parrots of Gabon or the Amazon, raptors, geese ... ), but sometimes much larger animals like wild yaks or orangutans in Russia, lions, jaguars and bears in Germany. / AFP PHOTO / FRANCOIS GUILLOT

PARIS: From ivory baubles and leopard coats to rare turtles and live bears, the online market for protected wildlife is booming, according to an International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) investigation released May 23. 

Experts from the NGO spent six weeks last year combing the Internet in four countries – Russia, France, Germany and Britain – for advertisements hawking endangered animals, whether dead or alive, in pieces or whole.