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)

Shoppers walk past crocodiles for sale at a market in Bata on February 3, 2015. Markets in Equatorial Guinea sell a variety of animals including pangolins, monkeys and crocodiles as food. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

A man takes a photograph of his friend as thick smoke rises from a fire, which broke out at oil wells set ablaze by Islamic State militants before they fled the oil-producing region of Qayyara, Iraq, January 28, 2017. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

A Polisario fighter sits on a rock at a forward base on the outskirts of Tifariti, Western Sahara, September 9, 2016. At a rocky outpost in Western Sahara, a new generation of soldiers who have never known war are mobilising as tensions resurface in one of Africa's oldest disputes after a quarter century of uneasy peace. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Two friends attempt to balance in the icy conditions in Newcastle, England on February 2, 2019. Boozy Brits across the UK took to the streets last night to ensure they got February off to a wet start after “Dry January”. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

Soldiers on exercise in Kenya. The image, by Sergeant Dek Traylor, is among the section winners in the UK Army Photographic Competition 2018. (Photo by Sergeant Dek Traylor/PA Wire Press Association)

Indian artists dress up as the Hindu deity “Hanuman” – the monkey God in Hindu mythology – to mark the Rama Navami festival in Bangalore on March 25, 2018. Rama Navami is a spring Hindu festival that celebrates the birthday of the deity Rama. He is particularly important to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism, as the seventh avatar of Vishnu. (Photo by Manjunath Kiran/AFP Photo)

A family wearing traditional Japanese clothing posed for a photograph during spring season in one of the garden in Kiyomizu dera, Kyoto prefecture, Japan on March 30, 2018. (Photo by Richard Atrero de Guzman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)