From Indonesia to India, wild
birds are being sold as pets to families who want their own Hedwig. Ecologists
call for protection to help species survive
Saturday 12 August
2017 21.44 BSTLast modified on Sunday 13 August
2017 06.43 BST
The Harry Potter phenomenon
has broken publishing and cinema box-office records and spawned a series of
lucrative theme parks. But wildlife experts are sounding the alarm over a sad
downside to JK Rowling’s tales of the troubled young wizard. The illegal trade
in owls has jumped in the far east over the past decade and researchers fear it
could endanger the survival of these distinctive predators in Asia.
Conservationists say the snowy
owl Hedwig – who remains the young wizard’s loyal companion for most of
the Harry Potter series
– is fuelling global demand for wild-caught birds for use as pets. In 2001, the
year in which the first film was released, only a few hundred were sold at
Indonesia’s many bird markets. By 2016, the figure had soared to more than
13,000, according to researchers Vincent Nijman and Anna Nekaris of Oxford
Brookes University in a paper in Global Ecology and Conservation. At
around $10 to $30, the price tag is affordable to most middle-class families.
The issue is of critical concern
because the owls being offered for sale are nearly all taken from the wild.
“The overall popularity of owls as pets in Indonesia has risen
to such an extent that it may imperil the conservation of some of the less
abundant species,” Nijman and Nekaris say.
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