Chile's Mary Dee Vargas (L) reacts after defeating Brazil's Larissa Farias compete in their Judo Women's –48 kg Bronze Medal contest during the Lima 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima on August 8, 2019. (Photo by Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters)

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)

An ethnic Lisu man dances barefoot on hot charcoal embers to celebrate the annual Knife Pole Festival in Luzhang township of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province, China, March 29, 2018. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Indonesian men carry their belongings as they wade through the water at a flooded neighborhood following heavy rains in Bekasi, Indonesia, Monday, February 22, 2021. Thousands of residents are being evacuated on the outskirts of Indonesia’s capital amid flooding after the Citarum River embankment broke. (Photo by Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo)

A worker looks at Spring Festival decorations ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year festivities in Beijing, China on January 12, 2023. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Denmark's midfielder #06 Morten Frendrup lies behind teammates during the UEFA Nations League quarter final second leg football match between Portugal and Denmark at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, on March 23, 2025. (Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

A health worker applies a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine during the first day of a three-day COVID-19 vaccination campaign for people over age 35 in the Complexo da Maré favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brazil, Thursday, July 29, 2021. Some recipients will be monitored to study the rate of protection the vaccines provide and the extent to which virus variants are circulating. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

Giant pandas are playing and foraging inside the Shenshuping base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wolong National Nature Reserve on November 3, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by An Yuan/China News Service via Getty Images)