Question 1

Which wildlife is seized most often?

Accepted Answer

Parrots & songbirds lead the public record with 264 cases, then turtles & tortoises (210) and elephant (ivory) (198).

Question 2

Where does seized wildlife come from, and where is it caught?

Accepted Answer

Leaving the United States aside, the busiest seized route is India to China (333 shipments); US-bound routes are 83% of all 24,786 seized shipments reported to CITES.

Question 3

Is wildlife sold online ever caught?

Accepted Answer

Rarely, in the public record: Bears in Thailand drew 1,303 adverts and 0 WildTrace cases in the same period.

Question 4

How often does a seizure end in a conviction?

Accepted Answer

In the public record, for every conviction there are about 11 seizures: 1,129 seizures, 509 arrest reports and 103 convictions.

Question 5

Are plants trafficked as much as animals?

Accepted Answer

Plants are 15% of seized shipments reported to CITES but only 11% of news cases: timber, orchids and medicinal plants are trafficked far more than they are reported.

Question 6

What is seized at US ports, and where does it come from?

Accepted Answer

US wildlife inspectors seized 19,346 import records of the groups WildTrace follows; most came from China, Indonesia, Mexico.

Question 7

Can "captive-bred" labels be trusted?

Accepted Answer

Not always: declaring wild-caught animals as bred is a documented laundering route. Palau's commercial sea fan & corals exports moved from 0% to 97% captive-bred in a few years.

Question 8

Does wildlife trade overlap with disease outbreaks?

Accepted Answer

Viruses confirmed by sequencing or isolation are recorded in 23 traded groups, and WHO published 2,117 reports on diseases with an animal reservoir; the two share a map, not a cause.

Question 9

Is wildlife crime a national security risk?

Accepted Answer

It reaches security through seven links, from extraction to crime revenue, disease and ecosystem loss; the weakest in open data is who profits.

Question 10

How accurate is WildTrace?

Accepted Answer

In a blind audit of 200 randomly sampled cases, 193 were genuine wildlife-trade enforcement events (96.5%; 95% interval 93.0% to 98.3%), and species were right in 98.4% of them.

Question 11

What was seized this month?

Accepted Answer

247 cases so far in 2026-09, most often parrots & songbirds, turtles & tortoises, elephant (ivory).

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