South American land dragon invades Vietnam

On the morning of December 17, the Education for Nature Center (ENV) issued a warning about “the rapid increase in trading and advertising of exotic wildlife in Vietnam”.

ENV said that in the period January 2022 to October 2024, from people’s notices, 471 cases with 1,759 violations related to advertising and trading of 45,307 exotic individuals were recorded. Of these, reptiles account for 82% with 37,048 exotic turtles, snakes and lizards for sale. This rate for birds is 9% and for other small mammals is about 4%.

“Most of these species are smuggled from abroad to Vietnam or originate from unlicensed breeding facilities and hobbyists,” said the Nature Education Center.

According to ENV, red-eared turtles and South American land dragons are two of the exotic species often trafficked in Vietnam. These two species are on the list of invasive alien species of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The trade in South American ground dragons leads to the possibility of natural populations forming when they are released into the environment or escape.

“This can seriously threaten the lives of native species as they compete for food sources and habitat, thereby disrupting the structure and balance of the ecosystem,” Ms. Bui Thi Ha, Deputy Director of ENV said.

The Nature Education Center takes the example of a southern province that discovered 80 individuals of South American earth dragons and 9 individuals of Tegu lizards. Instead of transferring them to a rescue center or zoo, the Forest Protection Department of this province auctioned them to the smugglers themselves. Currently, the subject is in the process of carrying out procedures to register the farming facility code.

Ms. Bui Thi Ha emphasized that along with threats to biodiversity as well as pandemics from wild animals such as AIDS, SARS, influenza A/H5N1, Ebola, rabies… State agencies must quickly to strengthen management and monitoring to control the growing trade in exotic species.