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Abstract
<p class="first" id="d3005479e99">The wildlife trade is a lucrative industry involving
thousands of animal and plant
species. The increasing use of the internet for both legal and illegal wildlife trade
is well documented, but there is evidence that trade may be emerging on new online
technologies such as social media. Using the orchid trade as a case study, we conducted
the first systematic survey of wildlife trade on an international social-media website.
We focused on themed forums (groups), where people with similar interests can interact
by uploading images or text (posts) that are visible to other group members. We used
social-network analysis to examine the ties between 150 of these orchid-themed groups
to determine the structure of the network. We found 4 communities of closely linked
groups based around shared language. Most trade occurred in a community that consisted
of English-speaking and Southeast Asian groups. In addition to the network analysis,
we randomly sampled 30 groups from the whole network to assess the prevalence of trade
in cultivated and wild plants. Of 55,805 posts recorded over 12 weeks, 8.9% contained
plants for sale, and 22-46% of these posts pertained to wild-collected orchids. Although
total numbers of posts about trade were relatively small, the large proportion of
posts advertising wild orchids for sale supports calls for better monitoring of social
media for trade in wild-collected plants.
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