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)

Hailee Steinfeld performs at the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Sunday, November 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Photo)

Female members of police commando march during a ceremony on International Women's Day, at the police headquarters in Islamabad, Pakistan March 8, 2018. (Photo by Faisal Mahmood/Reuters)

A performer dressed as a lobster is seen during a lobster-themed electronic music party at a water park on August 01, 2020 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Lian Guoqing/VCG via Getty Images)

Belarussian policemen detain a woman in central Minsk on August 11, 2020. Thousands of opposition supporters who also protested the results met with a tough police crackdown in Minsk and several other Belarusian cities for two straight nights. (Photo by Uladz Hrydzin/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

A woman visits St Savior in Chora church, known as Kariye in Turkish, in Istanbul, Friday, August 21, 2020. Turkey on Friday formally converted former Byzantine church, St Savior in Chora, into a mosque, a month after it similarly turned Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of prayer, drawing international rebuke. (Photo by Emrah Gurel/AP Photo)

A man reacts while having a nasal swab sample taken at a testing and screening facility for the coronavirus, in a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, Friday, August 21, 2020. (Photo by Fareed Khan/AP Photo)

Dancers from “LA Dance Project” perform, wearing a mask, during the drive-in show “Solo at Dusk” in Los Angeles, California, on October 13, 2020, amid the Coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP Photo)