Such opinions extend to conservation issues when public outcry ultimately led to the internet auction site, Ebay, curtailing trade in protected species and rare valuables. Numerous studies have alluded to the impact that Web 2.0 sites can have on public opinion –.

Web 2.0 sites provide online platforms for people to interact and collaborate to share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections by allowing users to share their personal details, information, ideas and imagery. Just as it has been shown that Web 2.0 sites may be used to promote products that have advertising bans, they also may be used indirectly to advertise exotic animals as pets by promoting the keeping of such animals. For some species, like Iranian Kaiser's spotted newt, rising demands in internet trade of live specimens has seen an increase in their harvesting from the wild, leading to near extinction of the species. Internet trade is also used to offer legally protected species for sale as pets. Improved packaging and infrastructure allow ornamental fish and corals to be ordered on the internet and shipped to one's door in a matter of days. Pet traders increasingly resort to the internet, e.g. Many threatened species or their body parts are explicitly advertised for sale on websites, including charismatic Asian flagship species such as elephants, tigers, and marine turtles. Such internet trade may particularly affect Asian wildlife as Asia is a region disproportionately rich in threatened and restricted-range species, and where over 1 billion internet users – nearly 45% of global access – reside. The internet is becoming the medium of choice for wildlife traders, , increasing not only the risk of over-exploitation of wild populations and disease transmission, but also the introduction of species outside their native ranges, where they may hybridise with native populations.

The employment of this individual (which is self-employment) does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company (Sonicated LTD, Computer and Network Security Department, Swindon, UK). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: This project was funded in part by grants to Nekaris from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-084, ), the Cleveland Zoo Asian Seed Fund ( ), Dierenpark Amersfoort ( ), and People's Trust for Endangered Species ( ). Received: FebruAccepted: JPublished: July 24, 2013Ĭopyright: © 2013 Nekaris et al. Roberts, University of Kent, United Kingdom Citation: Nekaris BKA-I, Campbell N, Coggins TG, Rode EJ, Nijman V (2013) Tickled to Death: Analysing Public Perceptions of ‘Cute’ Videos of Threatened Species (Slow Lorises – Nycticebus spp.) on Web 2.0 Sites.

Have a nice death. slowly