Interesting Recent Imports to the UK

LaughingDove

LaughingDove

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I have been browsing the CITES trade database (CITES Trade Database) today because I was rather bored and I noticed some interesting listings for the UK.

It seems that 6 individuals of Amazilia tobaci (Copper-rumped Hummingbird) and 6 individuals of Phaethornis guy (Green hermit) were imported into the UK from Trinidad and Tobago.
The origin of the animals isn't listed but since both are native to Trinidad and Tobago I would guess they are wild caught from there. Both for the purpose 'zoo'.

Another interesting one is 1 individual of Civettictis civetta (African Civet) imported to the UK from South Africa in 2012, also for the purpose 'zoo'.

Does anyone know anything about these imports?

I also thought it was interesting to see a few of the imports to various UK zoos that I already knew about such as Tarsiers that I think are the ones to the RSCC.
 
I've found another rather interesting listing. It is 1 live Cetorhinus maximus (Basking Shark) that was imported into the UK from Qatar for the purpose of 'Circus and Travelling Exhibitions' in 2013.
However it's origin is UK
 
LaughingDove said:
Another interesting one is 1 individual of Civettictis civetta (African Civet) imported to the UK from South Africa in 2012, also for the purpose 'zoo'.
Click to expand...

That was an import into RSCC as far as I know :) would not be surprised if the hummingbirds were, too.
 
What a cool resource! I have just downloaded 1397 records in a .csv file to make a spreadsheet of all CITES species imported into UK zoos from 1976 to 2013. I'm not sure what I will find when I explore it, but I think there may be a few interesting items to be discovered there.
Thank you LD.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
What a cool resource! I have just downloaded 1397 records in a .csv file to make a spreadsheet of all CITES species imported into UK zoos from 1976 to 2013. I'm not sure what I will find when I explore it, but I think there may be a few interesting items to be discovered there.
Thank you LD.

Alan
Click to expand...

How did you manage that? I tried to get the information for the import of bongo into the UK and got message, file too large.
 
bongorob said:
How did you manage that? I tried to get the information for the import of bongo into the UK and got message, file too large.
Click to expand...

It's not hard.
But you need to get all the boxes right. Type the first letter and then pick from the drop down menu. The boxes on the right should end up like this example (you may want different dates).

Search Selection:

Year Range: From: 2000 To: 2014
Exporting countries: All Countries
Importing countries: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Source: All Sources
Purpose: Z - Zoo
Trade Terms: LIV - live
Species: Tragelaphus eurycerus

Hope this helps

Alan
 
LaughingDove said:
I've found another rather interesting listing. It is 1 live Cetorhinus maximus (Basking Shark) that was imported into the UK from Qatar for the purpose of 'Circus and Travelling Exhibitions' in 2013.
However it's origin is UK
Click to expand...

I also noticed that (apparently) in 2013 a live, wild-caught great white shark was imported to the UK from Qatar, with an origin of Australia, also for the purpose of 'Circus and Travelling Exhibitions'.
 
gentle lemur said:
What a cool resource! I have just downloaded 1397 records in a .csv file to make a spreadsheet of all CITES species imported into UK zoos from 1976 to 2013. I'm not sure what I will find when I explore it, but I think there may be a few interesting items to be discovered there.
Thank you LD.

Alan
Click to expand...

Cool resource indeed! I discovered it earlier this year and was surprised that I hadn't heard about it sooner. I'm very surprised more people don't use it.
 
wow! great resource, the amount of falcons coming from Arab Emirates isn't too surprising but the thousands of crab eating macaques coming in as specimens or even live (I assume for lab work?) is quite astonishing!
 
LaughingDove said:
I've found another rather interesting listing. It is 1 live Cetorhinus maximus (Basking Shark) that was imported into the UK from Qatar for the purpose of 'Circus and Travelling Exhibitions' in 2013.
However it's origin is UK
Click to expand...
DesertRhino150 said:
I also noticed that (apparently) in 2013 a live, wild-caught great white shark was imported to the UK from Qatar, with an origin of Australia, also for the purpose of 'Circus and Travelling Exhibitions'.
Click to expand...
the basking shark is listed as an export from the UK in 2013 as "bodies". I would suggest that both animals are preserved specimens. However neither shark is listed as actually being imported into the UK as far as I can see (i.e. there is an "exporter reported quantity" for each listed from Qatar but no "importer reported quantity" for the UK).
 
Chlidonias said:
the basking shark is listed as an export from the UK in 2013 as "bodies". I would suggest that both animals are preserved specimens. However neither shark is listed as actually being imported into the UK as far as I can see (i.e. there is an "exporter reported quantity" for each listed from Qatar but no "importer reported quantity" for the UK).
Click to expand...

So do you think that it being listed as live is an error? It would make sense for it to be the same specimen exported from the UK to Qatar and then sent from Qatar back to the UK again which means that either the listing as bodies or as live is the error (or that it was alive and died at some time in between...).
There is no importer reported quantity for the import to Qatar or the import to the UK but the fact that one is then exported from Qatar makes me think that the lack of importer reported quantity is just something that is left off and not something that means that it wasn't imported.

I think something has been incorrectly recorded somewhere to be honest.

Does anyone know of any travelling show with Basking Shark and Great White specimens?
 
LaughingDove said:
So do you think that it being listed as live is an error? It would make sense for it to be the same specimen exported from the UK to Qatar and then sent from Qatar back to the UK again which means that either the listing as bodies or as live is the error (or that it was alive and died at some time in between...).
There is no importer reported quantity for the import to Qatar or the import to the UK but the fact that one is then exported from Qatar makes me think that the lack of importer reported quantity is just something that is left off and not something that means that it wasn't imported.

I think something has been incorrectly recorded somewhere to be honest.

Does anyone know of any travelling show with Basking Shark and Great White specimens?
Click to expand...
I've just been looking through the NZ records and there really is no consistency in the listings between "export" and "import". Even for species I know were imported there will often only be an export quantity number and a blank for the import quantity (or vice versa - an import quantity but zero export quantity). There also appear to be quite a number of inaccurate reportings (which presumably is due to input data errors being collated by a computer).

For the sharks in question, my belief would be that the UK listing as "bodies" is the correct one, and the Qatar listings as "live" is the error. There is really no way a great white shark or a basking shark could be exported live to Qatar and then onwards to the UK - still alive - to be used in a travelling exhibition.
 
stubeanz said:
wow! great resource, the amount of falcons coming from Arab Emirates isn't too surprising but the thousands of crab eating macaques coming in as specimens or even live (I assume for lab work?) is quite astonishing!
Click to expand...

Specimens could be anything down to genetic samples, and if they are of a specific region of the genome may mean that multiple (tens or potentially hundreds of) specimens are actually from the same individual.

For example, scientists in one country may extract DNA from say 10 individuals, and amplify say ten specific regions, and then send those 100 samples to a different country for sequencing, which is relatively common for some countries. From that you can see how quickly "thousands" of samples could be accumulated.
 
gentle lemur said:
What a cool resource! I have just downloaded 1397 records in a .csv file to make a spreadsheet of all CITES species imported into UK zoos from 1976 to 2013. I'm not sure what I will find when I explore it, but I think there may be a few interesting items to be discovered there.
Thank you LD.
Click to expand...
having had a bit more time to look through the listings (for NZ and Australia where I know what I'm looking for), the data isn't entirely accurate so don't take them as absolutes. There are many listings for species which were never imported, or the years of import are incorrect, and sometimes listings are doubled-up (i.e. the same listing is repeated for more than one year). I think parts of this are to do with imports not going ahead after permits were filed, imports being postponed (resulting in the same animals being listed more than once), and simple input errors. There are also listings completely absent (either individual animals or entire species which should have been recorded).
 
Errors and confusion are inevitable in this sort of data. Species may not be identified correctly (particularly if they have been reclassified at some stage). Some species have been added to the CITES list during the period covered. And of course, when numbers are large, mathematical errors are hard to avoid, particularly as there can be casualties in transit.

BTW the export of captive bred specimens is also interesting. Next time I go to the database I think I'm going to look at the import and export of live specimens from Jersey - it should be good :)

Alan
 
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