The trade in the endangered African Grey Parrot Psittacus erithacus and the Timneh Parrot Psittacus timneh in Algeria

Abstract

The global wildlife trade is considered one of the main threats to the conservation of a large number of imperilled species. African Grey parrots are one of the most heavily traded groups of birds, which led the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the species as Endangered in 2016. We aim to gain insight into the nature of the Timneh and African Grey parrots’ trade in physical markets, pet shops, and e-commerce platforms. In a 15-month online survey of Algeria’s largest e-commerce platform, we recorded 269 advertisements offering a minimum of 561 grey parrots for sale. We visited 13 street markets and 81 pet shops in 27 Algerian cities, and recorded 74 grey parrots in 15 of these. Interviews with online sellers indicate that the majority of grey parrots offered for sale were wild-sourced, and that half of the sellers are unaware that the grey parrot trade is illegal.

Keywords: markets surveys, North Africa, online trade, Psittacus parrots, wildlife trade