The dark web trades wildlife, but mostly for use as drugs
Roughly 90% of dark web wildlife advertisements are for species used as drugs, not the live pet or product trade.
By Oliver C. Stringham, Jacob Maher, Charlie Lassaline, Lewis Wood, Sarah Moncayo, Adam Toomes, Sarah Heinrich, Sebastian Chekunov, Katherine G.W. Hill, David Décary-Hétu, Lewis Mitchell, Joshua V. Ross, Phillip Cassey in Research
May 4, 2023
Abstract
Using a five-year archive of dark web marketplace listings, we searched roughly 2 million advertisements with about 7,000 wildlife trade-related search terms and identified 153 species traded across 3,332 advertisements. Contrary to assumptions that the dark web is a significant venue for illegal wildlife trade, the large majority of listings were for species used as recreational drugs (largely psychedelic fungi and plants) rather than live animals or wildlife products. Our findings suggest that, at present, conservation and biosecurity risks from the dark web are comparatively low relative to open e-commerce and social media platforms, though this could shift if those more visible channels become harder for traders to use.