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)

Nicole Scherzinger at the “The X Factor” TV show, Series 14, Episode 15, Judges' Houses in Sun City, South Africa on October 21, 2017. (Photo by Dymond/Thames/Syco/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

ABC's “Jimmy Kimmel Live” features a week of guest hosts filling in for Jimmy, starting Monday, October 30, 2017. The guest host for Thursday, November 2 was Jennifer Lawrence with guest Kim Kardashian West (KKW Beauty) and musical guest Linkin Bridge. (Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty Images)

Lava cascades down the slopes of Mayon volcano as seen from Legazpi city, Albay province, around 340 kilometers (210 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines, Monday, January 15, 2018. More than 9,000 people have evacuated the area around the Philippines' most active volcano as lava flowed down its crater Monday in a gentle eruption that scientists warned could turn explosive. (Photo by Earl Recamunda/AP Photo)

A tourist clad in Japanese kimono takes a picture in front of s portrait shop in Tokyo's Asakusa district, Thursday, February 15, 2018. Asakusa is a popular district four tourists in the capital. (Photo by Shizuo Kambayashi/AP Photo)

A young girl plays on the glass bottom platform of the Oriental Pear TV Tower as she travels with her family on the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, also known as Spring Festival, in Shanghai, China on February 18, 2018. Some 287 million tourists travelled in China during the first four days of the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year, new data showed Sunday. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A pro-abortion activist wearing a poncho with an illustration of a woman in jail, demonstrates to demand the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City, Mexico September 28, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Jasso/Reuters)

A group of fashionable nonagenarians pose for a photo in Pengzhou, Sichuan, China on October 12, 2016. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)