In North Maluku, Indonesia, the illegal bird trade is very big. New surveys are being done to study the populations of the endangered parrot species that live there and to stop the poaching. But why is the parrot trade so big all of a sudden? Many say this may be because of advertisements on social media. Could social media be causing a surge in illegal parrot trading?
There's a lot of concern about social media causing problems for exotic pets in general, and not just because of advertising. People see cool, cute gifs and photos and videos of exotic pets and think that getting one is a good idea. But they're only seeing the fun stuff, most exotic animals are bad pets for most people. I'm pretty sure this is why almost every zoo I've been to has made it a point to tell guests that exotic animals are poor pets, they know that guests are gonna fall in love and even be tempted to get one. Not only that, but the internet makes it a lot easier to obtain exotic pets. You don't have to go out of your way to get one of many parrot species. Hell, you could basically impulse buy a lot of 'em.
