A fisherman throws a net for catching fish with his wife in Yanhu fisherman village near Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China, 18 October 2018. (Photo by Aleksandar Plavevski/EPA/EFE)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

After a long time renovation project, the old town in Taiyuan city which was founded in 1357, finally lights up and opens to public in Taiyuan City, north China's Shanxi Province, 23 November 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A worker piles salvaged e-bikes and scooters on the back of his three wheeler before taking them to be recycled on August 31, 2021 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

People wearing bear furs perform during a festival of New Year ritual dances attended by hundreds in Comanesti, northern Romania, Wednesday, December 30 2015. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, toured from house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil, in the present the tradition has moved to Romania's cities too, where dancers travel to perform the ritual for money. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

Peng Jing, 24, attends her wedding photography shoot after the lockdown was lifted in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and China's epicentre of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, April 15, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Deaf and hard of hearing people perform a Buddhist Guanyin Thousand Hand dance to mark Sunday's National Day for Helping the Disabled in Yunnan, Kunming province, China on May 19, 2018. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

Singer Ariana Grande performs during the funeral service for Aretha Franklin at Greater Grace Temple, Friday, August 31, 2018, in Detroit. Franklin died August 16, 2018 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. (Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters)