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)

People enjoy themselves as they dance to Dominican music at a refugee camp for Haitians returning from the Dominican Republic on the outskirts of Anse-a-Pitres, Haiti, September 6, 2015. Dominican officials last month began implementing a controversial immigration program targeting Haitian migrants and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent. The program centers on round-ups and deportations that have triggered concerns about a slow-growing border migration crisis in the poorest country in the Americas. So far about 1,500 people have been deported at a pace of 50 to 100 per day, according to relief officials with access to records supplied by the Dominican government. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

Yang Juan, an employee at Goopal Group, takes a nap in her seat after lunch, in Beijing, China, April 21, 2016. Office workers sleeping on the job is a common sight in China, where a surplus of cheap labour can lead to downtime at work. But in China's technology sector, where business is growing faster than many start-up firms can hire new staff, workers burn the midnight oil to meet deadlines and compete with their rivals. Some companies provide sleeping areas and beds for workers to rest during late nights. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

A Munduruku Indian child is pictured at the Planalto Palace, where a meeting with Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil Gilberto Carvalho was being held with other Munduruku Indians, in Brasilia, June 4, 2013. President Dilma Rousseff's government sought on Tuesday to defuse mounting conflicts with indigenous groups over its decision to stop setting aside farm land for Indians and plans to build more hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. The government flew 144 Munduruku Indians to Brasilia for talks to end a week-long occupation of the controversial Belo Monte dam on the Xingu river, a huge project aimed at feeding Brazil's fast-growing demand for electricity. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Ayesha Farooq, 26, Pakistan's only female war-ready fighter pilot watches an airforce jet about to take off at Mushaf base in Sargodha, north Pakistan June 7, 2013. Farooq, from Punjab province's historic city of Bahawalpur, is one of 19 women who have become pilots in the Pakistan Air Force over the last decade – there are five other female fighter pilots, but they have yet to take the final tests to qualify for combat. A growing number of women have joined Pakistan's defence forces in recent years as attitudes towards women change. (Photo by Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

“Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the agave family, Agavaceae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry (arid) parts of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Early reports of the species were confused with the cassava (Manihot esculenta). Consequently, Linnaeus mistakenly derived the generic name from the Carib word for the latter, yuca. It is also colloquially known in the midwest United States as “Ghosts in the graveyard”, as it is commonly found growing in rural graveyards and when in bloom the flowers appear as an apparition floating.” – Wikipedia

Photo: A yucca standing among flowers bursts forth a very large stalk of flowers as a heavy wildflower bloom on June 21, 2005 in the Angeles National Forest northwest of La Canada, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

“Doctor fish is the name given to two species of fish: Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, physio fish and doctorfishen; in non-medical contexts, Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker. They live and breed in the outdoor pools of some Turkish spas, where they feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis. The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects. The spas are not meant as a curative treatment option, only as a temporary alleviation of symptoms, and patients usually revisit the spas every few months”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Visitors to the Aqua Sheko fish therapy spa have their feet exfoliated on June 24, 2010 in London, England. Customers sit with their feet in a tank filled with 100-150 Garra Rufa fish which remove any dead skin by nibbling and sucking. A half hour session is then followed by a foot massage. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

An ethnic Kayaw couple Mu Htoo and her husband Htaw Eili rest at their home at Htaykho village in the Kayah state, Myanmar September 12, 2015. With about 30,000 members, the Kayaw are one of the smallest ethnic minorities among Myanmar's 135 groups. Their village has for decades been off-limits, as armed rebels fought the military before a recent ceasefire stopped the bloody conflict here. The rebels in the area have put down their guns and taken to the hills to grow rice and corn, but slash-and-burn cultivation methods mean they struggle to find new places to farm. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)