My publications and reports, each linked with accompanying PDFs, preprints, and/or news pieces. See my CV for full list of publications and see here for my Research Themes.
Written by Oliver C. Stringham
Analyzing roughly 14,000 online sales listings covering 235 parrot and songbird species, we found 55% of traded parrot species and 64% of traded songbird species were non-native to Australia, with most at extreme risk of establishing invasive populations. Traded abundance was best predicted by breeding and handling requirements, availability, and appearance.
We collected environmental DNA from tree bark and understory foliage at 40 sites in a New Jersey forest and, using two metabarcoding primer sets, recovered over 1,000 arthropod molecular operational taxonomic units spanning 292 identified species, 181 families, and 28 orders — proof-of-concept that surface eDNA can survey terrestrial arthropod communities.
Despite state and territory bans, invasive plants are widely available on Australian e-commerce platforms. Across 235,162 plant advertisements collected over 12 months, we found 155 plant taxa being sold that are prohibited from trade in at least one Australian state or territory.
The online trade of live invertebrates in Australia is largely unregulated and unmonitored. Tracking listings over 12 months, we found 264 traded invertebrate species spanning 71 families and 168 genera, led by the native stick insect Extatosoma tiaratum, with stick insects, ants, and tarantulas the most popular groups.
Using web scrapers across 12 Australian e-commerce websites over 14 weeks, we identified 1,192 species being traded as pets within Australia, including 667 non-native species and 81 threatened species, providing the first broad snapshot of the scale and composition of Australia’s online pet trade.