HUMANS AND WILDLIFE: TOURISM, RIDES, ANTHROPOMORPHISM, MEAT

WILDLIFE TOURISM ATTRACTIONS

swimming with a captive dolphin

Wildlife tourism contributes more than US$100 billion per year to the global economy. Wildlife attractions such as swimming with dolphins lure people from around the world and now make up a lucrative segment of the booming global travel industry. Twice as many trips were taken in 2019 than there were in 2005, an increase partly attributed to Chinese tourists, who spend far more on international travel than any other nationality. [Source: Natasha Daly, National Geographic, June 2019]

Natasha Daly wrote in National Geographic: “Wildlife tourism isn’t new, but social media is setting the industry ablaze, turning encounters with exotic animals into photo-driven bucket-list toppers. Activities once publicized mostly in guidebooks now are shared instantly with multitudes of people by selfie-taking backpackers, tour-bus travelers, and social media “influencers” through a tap on their phone screens. Nearly all millennials (23- to 38-year-olds) use social media while traveling. Their selfies — of swims with dolphins, encounters with tigers, rides on elephants, and more — are viral advertising for attractions that tout up-close experiences with animals.

“For all the visibility social media provides, it doesn’t show what happens beyond the view of the camera lens. People who feel joy and exhilaration from getting close to wild animals usually are unaware that many of the animals at such attractions live in” less than ideal conditions. “Owners and operators of wildlife tourism attractions, from high-end facilities such as Dolphin Quest in Hawaii to low-end monkey shows in Thailand, say their animals live longer in captivity than wild counterparts because they’re safe from predators and environmental hazards. Show operators proudly emphasize that the animals under their care are with them for life. They’re family.

Influencers and Wild Animals

Natasha Daly wrote in National Geographic: Everyone finds Olga Barantseva on Instagram. “Photographer from Russia. Photographing dreams,” her bio reads... She meets clients for woodland photo shoots with captive wild animals just outside Moscow. For her 18th birthday, Sasha Belova treated herself to a session with Barantseva — and a pack of wolves. “It was my dream,” she says as she fidgets with her hair, which had been styled that morning. “Wolves are wild and dangerous.” The wolves are kept in small cages at a petting zoo when not participating in photo shoots. The Kravtsov family hired Barantseva to take their first professional family photos — all five family members, shivering and smiling in the birch forest, joined by a bear named Stepan. “Barantseva has been photographing people and wild animals together for six years. She “woke up as a star,” she says, in 2015, when a couple of international media outlets found her online. Her audience has exploded to more than 80,000 followers worldwide. “I want to show harmony between people and animals,” she says.[Source: Natasha Daly, National Geographic, June 2019]

“On a raw fall day, under a crown of golden birch leaves on a hill that overlooks a frigid lake, two-and-a-half-year-old Alexander Levin, dressed in a hooded bumblebee sweater, timidly holds Stepan’s paw. The bear’s owners, Yury and Svetlana Panteleenko, ply their star with food — tuna fish mixed with oatmeal — to get him to approach the boy. Snap: It looks like a tender friendship. The owners toss grapes to Stepan to get him to open his mouth wide. Snap: The bear looks as if he’s smiling.

“The Panteleenkos constantly move Stepan, adjusting his paws, feeding him, and positioning Alexander as Barantseva, pink-haired, bundled in jeans and a parka, captures each moment. Snap: A photo goes to her Instagram feed. A boy and a bear in golden Russian woods — a picture straight out of a fairy tale. It’s a contemporary twist on a long-standing Russian tradition of exploiting bears for entertainment.

“Another day in the same forest, Kirsten and I join 12 young women who have nearly identical Instagram accounts replete with dreamy photos of models caressing owls and wolves and foxes. Armed with fancy cameras but as yet modest numbers of followers, they all want the audience Barantseva has. Each has paid the Panteleenkos $760 to take identical shots of models with the ultimate prize: a bear in the woods.

“Stepan is 26 years old, elderly for a brown bear, and can hardly walk. The Panteleenkos say they bought him from a small zoo when he was three months old. They say the bear’s work — a constant stream of photo shoots and movies — provides money to keep him fed. A video on Svetlana Panteleenko’s Instagram account proclaims: “Love along with some great food can make anyone a teddy”. And just like that, social media takes a single instance of local animal tourism and broadcasts it to the world.

Cruelty of Animal Rides

Elephant safari to see a one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park, India

Andrea Sachs wrote in the Washington Post: In March 2023, a photo of Pai Lin made the viral rounds. The image of the septuagenarian female illustrated the dark and painful underbelly of elephant tourism in Thailand. The Asian elephant's back sloped down like a ramp, the weight of countless visitors crushing her spine. Pai Lin spent a quarter of a century entertaining tourists. She is now retired, living her remaining years at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand in Tha Mai Ruak, the sanctuary that released the photo. However, around the world, many elephants and beasts of burden are not so fortunate. New generations of animals have joined their elders in a trade that is still prevalent but has been gaining more vocal opponents over the years. [Source: Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, March 30, 2023]

"Riding animals is high on the list of cruelty," said Liz Cabrera Holtz, a wildlife campaign manager with the U.S. office of World Animal Protection. "I think attitudes are changing about the use of wild animals as entertainment, but we recognize that there's no quick fix."The issues are manifold and intricate. The concerns touch on animal welfare as well as cultural traditions, human livelihoods and the economics of tourism. There is no easy answer, but travelers can be part of the solution. When people stop paying for camel rides in Giza or donkey rides in Petra or elephant rides in Ayutthaya, then the [local businesses] stop using them," said Jason Baker, senior vice president of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "We are trying to hold tourists accountable and make them empowered."

Animal rights advocates say the abuse is often in plain sight, barely veiled by a leather seat or blanket. Baker, who has investigated the living and working conditions of camels and horses in Egypt and Jordan, has seen animals suffering from saddle sores, starvation, dehydration and maggot-infested wounds. On the Greek island of Santorini, PETA Germany has documented the harsh treatment of donkeys, which are forced to carry heavy loads (including tourists) up and down 500 steps under a punishingly hot Mediterranean sun. Some of the animals wore sharp metal wire muzzles that jabbed into their faces; others were whipped or beaten and denied water, food and rest."You can see the cruelty in front of you," Baker said. "The scars are the scars, the hitting is the hitting."

Discouraging Animal Rides and Coming Up With Alternatives

Andrea Sachs wrote in the Washington Post: All countries have some form of animal welfare legislation, though the laws may favor domesticated pets over captive or wild animals. World Animal Protection's Animal Protection Index ranks 50 countries based on laws and policies. For example, on a scale of A to G (best to worst), Thailand received a C for "laws against causing animal suffering," a D for "protecting animals in captivity" and an F for "protecting animals used for draught and recreation." Egypt earned mostly F's and G's. Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands ranked the highest, with an overall B score. The United States and Canada fell right in between, with a D. [Source: Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, March 30, 2023]

Growing attention on sustainability and environmental issues, plus a rising demand for accountability and transparency, has helped push the needle in a more positive direction. Tripadvisor was one of the first major travel companies to take a stand: In 2016, it no longer allowed travelers to book activities that involved physical contact with wild or captive animals. The following year, Shore Excursions Group, which provides cruise lines with port activities, removed elephant rides from its slate of options; Royal Caribbean eliminated the activity as well. In 2019, Booking.com and Airbnb drew up animal welfare policies that banned a range of unethical animal activities, such as elephant rides. The same year, the Association of British Travel Agents revised its animal welfare guidelines to include a similar provision. "When the big organizations took a more formalized stance, the governments paid attention," said Paul Pruangkarn, chief of staff for the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok.

The momentum has continued, even during the pandemic. In 2021, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan replaced the horse-drawn carriages with a small fleet of electric golf carts. Locals transport guests from the Siq, or gorge, to the Treasury, about a mile-long trip. "No more animals are going through the Siq," said Malia Asfour, managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board, North America. However, handlers with camels, donkeys and horses still hawk rides in the back half of the UNESCO World Heritage site. "It's a process," she admitted. "We can't turn everything off tomorrow."

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, a federal committee announced its intentions to abolish elephant rides at Amer Fort in Jaipur, following reports of animal abuse and neglect and visitors' waning interest. PETA India provided a concept for a royal substitute: an electric chariot dubbed the Maharaja. The switch is still pending, but travelers can rent diesel cars to explore the fort. Similarly, at the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egyptian authorities are considering replacing the horse-drawn carts that dangerously race up the slippery road with electric vehicles. Discussions have stalled, but Baker sees flickers of hope. While walking up the road to see the pyramids in Giza, he ran into another traveler also on foot. "They made a comment that they weren't going on a terrible animal ride," Baker said. "That's progress."

Exotic Wildlife Pets in the U.S.

Lauren Slater wrote in National Geographic: “All across the nation, in Americans’ backyards and garages and living rooms, in their beds and basements and bathrooms, wild animals kept as pets live side by side with their human owners. It’s believed that more exotic animals live in American homes than are cared for in American zoos. The exotic-pet business is a lucrative industry, one that’s drawn criticism from animal welfare advocates and wildlife conservationists alike. These people say it’s not only dangerous to bring captive-bred wildlife into the suburbs, but it’s cruel and it ought to be criminal too. Yet the issue is far from black or white. [Source:Lauren Slater, National Geographic, April 2014]

“At least not to Leslie-Ann Rush, a horse trainer who lives on a seven-acre farm outside Orlando, Florida, a place where the wind makes a rustling sound when it whips through the palms. Rush, 57, who has a kind face and hair the color of corn, breeds and trains gypsy horses she houses in a barn behind her small petting zoo, a wire enclosure where three male kangaroos, four lemurs, a muntjac deer (originally from Asia), a potbellied pig, a raccoon-like kinkajou called Kiwi, and a dog named Dozer all live—the lemurs leaping freely, the kangaroos sleeping on their sides, the petite pig rooting in the ground, the Asian deer balancing its rack of antlers on its delicate head. Rush weaves in and around her exotic pets with ease and cheerfulness and Cheerios, doling them out to the lemurs. They thrust their humanlike hands into the open boxes and draw out fistfuls of O’s, which they eat almost politely, one by one, dining daintily while the drool gathers in the corners of their mouths.

“Rush has a ring-tailed lemur, Liam; two ruffed lemurs, Lolli and Poppi; and a common brown lemur named Charlie. While many lemurs are threatened, the ruffed lemurs are considered critically endangered in the wild. Rush believes that by caring for these captive-bred creatures she is doing her part to help keep lemurs alive on Earth, and she cares for her animals with a profound commitment that consumes her days and even her nights. As darkness falls, she moves from the small enclosure into her home and takes her favorite lemur with her; he shares her bed, coiled up on a pillow by her head.

“Because kangaroos are active typically at dawn and dusk, the animals look lazy in the daylight, dun-colored beasts lying on their sides in cylinders of sun, their thick tails trailing in the dry dirt. But come evening they hop up on their hind legs and press their faces against the large glass window, looking in on Rush in her home: Let me come in, they seem to say. Rush does not let them in, although she did when they were babies. “I have all of these amazing animals of different species, from different continents, and the thing is, they play together,” she says, and she sweeps her hand through the air, gesturing to her multicolored menagerie sunning, sleeping, snacking. She has filmed and posted videos of them playing on YouTube, the lemurs leaping over the kangaroos, which hop and twirl and chase the primates around the yard.

Hunters and Animal- Loving Misanthropes?

Paul Theroux wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Animal lovers often tend to be misanthropes or loners, and so they transfer their affection to the creature in their control. The classics of this type are single species obsessives, like Joy Adamson, the Born Free woman who raised Elsa the lioness and was celebrated in East Africa as a notorious scold; or Dian Fossey, the gorilla woman, who was a drinker and a recluse. "Grizzly man" Tim Treadwell was regarded, in some circles, as an authority on grizzlies, but Werner Herzog's documentary shows him to have been deeply disturbed, perhaps psychopathic and violent. [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006]

Assigning human personalities to animals is the chief trait of the pet owner — the doting dog-lover with his baby talk, the smug stay-at-home with a fat lump of fur on her lap who says, "Me, I'm a cat person," and the granny who puts her nose against the tin cage and makes kissing noises at her parakeet. Their affection is often tinged with a sense of superiority.

Deer and duck hunters never talk this way about their prey, though big game hunters — Hemingway is the classic example — often sentimentalize the creatures they blow to bits and then lovingly stuff to hang on the wall. The lion in Hemingway's story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is sketched as one of the characters, but that is perhaps predictable given Hemingway's tendency to romanticize what have come to be called charismatic megafauna. Moby-Dick is wicked and vengeful, and Jaws was not a hungry shark but a villain, its big teeth the very symbol of its evil. And goodness is embodied in the soulful eyes of a seal pup, so like a 6-year-old that at seal culling season you find celebrities crawling across ice floes to cuddle them.

Anthropomorphizing Animals

Paul Theroux wrote in Smithsonian magazine: The literature of pets, or beloved animals, from My Dog Tulip to Tarka the Otter, is full of gushing anthropomorphists. The writers of nature films and wildlife documentaries are so seriously afflicted in this way they distort science. How many ant colonies have you seen on a TV screen while hearing, "Just putting that thing on his back and toiling with his little twig and thinking, I've just got to hang on a little while longer," speaking of the ant as though it's a Nepalese Sherpa. [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006]

Possibly the creepiest animals-presented-as-humans film was March of the Penguins, a hit movie for obviously the very reason that it presented these birds as tubby Christians marooned on a barren snowfield, examples to be emulated for their family values. When a bird of prey, unidentified but probably a giant petrel, appears in the film and dives to kill a chick, the carnage is not shown nor is the bird identified. The bird is not another creature struggling to exist in a snowfield but an opportunistic mugger from the polar wastes. We are enjoined to see the penguins as good and the giant petrel as wicked. With this travesty of science people try to put a human face on the animal world.

This is perhaps understandable. I've named most of my geese, if only to make sense of which one is which, and they grow into the name. I talk to them. They talk back to me. I have genuine affection for them. They make me laugh in their wrongheadedness as well as in the ironies of their often-unerring instincts. I also feel for them, and I understand their mortality in ways they cannot. But even in the pathos, which is part of pet owning, I try to avoid anthropomorphizing them, which is the greatest barrier to understanding their world.

E.B White — The King Anthropomorphist

E. B. White, author “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little”, is arguably the most loved writer of animals, and Paul Theroux’s view, one of the guiltiest anthropomorphists. Theroux wrote in Smithsonian magazine: E. B. White patronizes his geese and invents feelings for them and obfuscates things. After years of goose rearing, I finally read his essays and, as I feared, was in the company of a fanciful author, not an observant gozzard, or goose rearer. Here was "a gander who was full of sorrows and suspicions." A few sentences later the gander was referred to as "a grief-crazed old fool." These are the sentimentalities you find in children's books. A goose in White's "classic" story about a spider, Charlotte's Web, says to Wilbur the pig, "I'm sitting-sitting on my eggs. Eight of them. Got to keep them toasty-oasty-oasty warm." [Source: Paul Theroux, Smithsonian magazine, December 2006]

E. B. White is never happier than when he is able to depict an animal by humanizing it as a friend. Yet what lies behind the animal's expression of friendship? It is an eagerness for easy food. Feed birds and they show up. Leave the lids off garbage cans in Maine and you've got bears — "beggar bears" as they're known. Deer love the suburbs — that's where the easiest meals are. Woodchucks prefer dahlias to dandelions. The daily imperative of most animals, wild and tame, is the quest for food, which is why, with some in your hand, you seem to have a pet, if not a grateful pal.

White's geese are not just contented but cheerful. They are also sorrowful. They are malicious, friendly, broken-spirited. They mourn. They are at times "grief-stricken." White is idiosyncratic in distinguishing male from female. He misunderstands the cumulative battles that result in a dominant gander — and this conflict is at the heart of his essay. He seems not to notice how at the margins of a flock they bond with each other — two old ganders, for example, keeping each other company. It seems to White that geese assume such unusual positions for sex that they've consulted "one of the modern sex manuals." Goslings are "innocent" and helpless. When I came across the gander White singled out as "a real dandy, full of pompous thoughts and surly gestures," I scribbled in the margin, "oh, boy."

World’s Top Game Meat Producing, Exporting and Importing Countries

World’s Top Producers of Game Meat (2020): 1) Papua New Guinea: 414108 tonnes; 2) United States: 265239 tonnes; 3) Nigeria: 170839 tonnes; 4) Côte d'Ivoire: 152633 tonnes; 5) Ethiopia: 90310 tonnes; 6) Democratic Republic of the Congo: 89082 tonnes; 7) Ghana: 75202 tonnes; 8) Cameroon: 72724 tonnes; 9) Argentina: 50980 tonnes; 10) Morocco: 50797 tonnes; 11) South Africa: 47848 tonnes; 12) Congo: 43066 tonnes; 13) Zambia: 40493 tonnes; 14) Zimbabwe: 36828 tonnes; 15) Kenya: 29361 tonnes; 16) Niger: 29360 tonnes; 17) Gabon: 27910 tonnes; 18) Botswana: 25850 tonnes; 19) Mali: 24613 tonnes; 20) Tanzania: 23915 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Producers (in terms of value) of Game Meat (2019): 1) Papua New Guinea: Int.$1141959,000 ; 2) United States: Int.$712817,000 ; 3) Nigeria: Int.$516439,000 ; 4) Côte d'Ivoire: Int.$420957,000 ; 5) Ethiopia: Int.$246855,000 ; 6) Democratic Republic of the Congo: Int.$240751,000 ; 7) Ghana: Int.$215526,000 ; 8) Cameroon: Int.$208810,000 ; 9) South Africa: Int.$158991,000 ; 10) Congo: Int.$149006,000 ; 11) Morocco: Int.$145073,000 ; 12) Argentina: Int.$135407,000 ; 13) Zambia: Int.$109218,000 ; 14) Zimbabwe: Int.$97564,000 ; 15) Kenya: Int.$93314,000 ; 16) Niger: Int.$89255,000 ; 17) Botswana: Int.$86706,000 ; 18) Gabon: Int.$77438,000 ; 19) Mali: Int.$74829,000 ; 20) Tanzania: Int.$71372,000 ; [An international dollar (Int.$) buys a comparable amount of goods in the cited country that a U.S. dollar would buy in the United States.]

World’s Top Exporters of Game Meat (2020): 1) New Zealand: 10412 tonnes; 2) Poland: 8234 tonnes; 3) Netherlands: 8157 tonnes; 4) Belgium: 5277 tonnes; 5) Germany: 3327 tonnes; 6) Spain: 3141 tonnes; 7) France: 2390 tonnes; 8) Hungary: 2061 tonnes; 9) Austria: 1407 tonnes; 10) Czechia: 1401 tonnes; 11) United Kingdom: 1126 tonnes; 12) Slovenia: 935 tonnes; 13) Italy: 588 tonnes; 14) Estonia: 572 tonnes; 15) Slovakia: 561 tonnes; 16) South Africa: 392 tonnes; 17) Saudi Arabia: 314 tonnes; 18) Sweden: 266 tonnes; 19) United States: 129 tonnes; 20) Denmark: 115 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Game Meat (2020): 1) New Zealand: US$81016,000; 2) Netherlands: US$36701,000; 3) Poland: US$35228,000; 4) Germany: US$33768,000; 5) Spain: US$20972,000; 6) Belgium: US$19673,000; 7) France: US$17041,000; 8) Austria: US$16540,000; 9) Hungary: US$11318,000; 10) Slovenia: US$11293,000; 11) Czechia: US$8003,000; 12) United Kingdom: US$5652,000; 13) South Africa: US$4557,000; 14) Estonia: US$3050,000; 15) Sweden: US$3020,000; 16) Italy: US$2547,000; 17) Slovakia: US$2374,000; 18) Saudi Arabia: US$1538,000; 19) Denmark: US$1003,000; 20) Finland: US$616,000

World’s Top Importers of Game Meat (2020): 1) Netherlands: 32746 tonnes; 2) Germany: 14819 tonnes; 3) Belgium: 7336 tonnes; 4) Saudi Arabia: 4257 tonnes; 5) United States: 4145 tonnes; 6) France: 3171 tonnes; 7) Italy: 2649 tonnes; 8) United Kingdom: 2385 tonnes; 9) Austria: 2108 tonnes; 10) Slovenia: 887 tonnes; 11) Czechia: 766 tonnes; 12) Finland: 604 tonnes; 13) Slovakia: 551 tonnes; 14) Poland: 497 tonnes; 15) Sweden: 444 tonnes; 16) Spain: 358 tonnes; 17) Denmark: 324 tonnes; 18) Portugal: 245 tonnes; 19) Luxembourg: 148 tonnes; 20) Romania: 106 tonnes [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Game Meat (2020): 1) Germany: US$91019,000; 2) Netherlands: US$67648,000; 3) Belgium: US$43447,000; 4) United States: US$27637,000; 5) France: US$20998,000; 6) Austria: US$16202,000; 7) Italy: US$16117,000; 8) United Kingdom: US$10562,000; 9) Saudi Arabia: US$5983,000; 10) Slovenia: US$4325,000; 11) Finland: US$4304,000; 12) Sweden: US$3911,000; 13) Czechia: US$3074,000; 14) Poland: US$3002,000; 15) Spain: US$2397,000; 16) Denmark: US$2304,000; 17) Slovakia: US$2264,000; 18) Luxembourg: US$1805,000; 19) Portugal: US$1050,000; 20) Romania: US$759,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Live Animal Exporting and Importing Countries

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Live Animals nes (2020): 1) South Africa: US$13841,000; 2) Czechia: US$9257,000; 3) United Arab Emirates: US$5717,000; 4) Qatar: US$2918,000; 5) Thailand: US$2465,000; 6) Russia: US$2020,000; 7) Hong Kong: US$1916,000; 8) Ukraine: US$1605,000; 9) Seychelles: US$1190,000; 10) Kenya: US$803,000; 11) Malaysia: US$683,000; 12) China: US$681,000; 13) Lebanon: US$543,000; 14) Egypt: US$514,000; 15) Belarus: US$501,000; 16) Ireland: US$296,000; 17) Pakistan: US$277,000; 18) Turkey: US$240,000; 19) Mauritius: US$200,000; 20) Mexico: US$148,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org,nes means “Not elsewhere specified or included”]

World’s Top Exporters (in value terms) of Animals, live, non-food (2020): 1) Netherlands: US$191390,000; 2) United States: US$96580,000; 3) France: US$75858,000; 4) Belgium: US$74618,000; 5) Cambodia: US$73085,000; 6) Canada: US$68214,000; 7) Spain: US$48346,000; 8) Germany: US$45551,000; 9) United Kingdom: US$34616,000; 10) Denmark: US$34566,000; 11) Mauritius: US$32806,000; 12) Egypt: US$25807,000; 13) Israel: US$18437,000; 14) China: US$16750,000; 15) Slovakia: US$14912,000; 16) Italy: US$14402,000; 17) Morocco: US$13516,000; 18) Hungary: US$12354,000; 19) Singapore: US$12233,000; 20) Japan: US$11015,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Live Animals nes (2020): 1) Russia: US$6910,000; 2) China: US$5653,000; 3) Hong Kong: US$4931,000; 4) Czechia: US$3056,000; 5) United Arab Emirates: US$2305,000; 6) Thailand: US$1980,000; 7) Bangladesh: US$1832,000; 8) Iran: US$1675,000; 9) Croatia: US$1352,000; 10) South Africa: US$1269,000; 11) Iraq: US$1243,000; 12) Kuwait: US$1146,000; 13) Ukraine: US$875,000; 14) Turkey: US$785,000; 15) Taiwan: US$754,000; 16) Ethiopia: US$543,000; 17) Armenia: US$482,000; 18) Belarus: US$475,000; 19) Uzbekistan: US$436,000; 20) United Kingdom: US$397,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org, nes means “Not elsewhere specified or included”]

World’s Top Importers (in value terms) of Live, Non-Food Animals (2020): 1) United States: US$259305,000; 2) Canada: US$84569,000; 3) Germany: US$65992,000; 4) France: US$61647,000; 5) Spain: US$49517,000; 6) United Kingdom: US$43167,000; 7) Netherlands: US$39514,000; 8) Japan: US$38608,000; 9) Belgium: US$37699,000; 10) South Korea: US$35468,000; 11) Italy: US$21999,000; 12) Switzerland: US$19397,000; 13) Singapore: US$18904,000; 14) China: US$13613,000; 15) Denmark: US$9827,000; 16) Austria: US$7547,000; 17) Poland: US$7356,000; 18) Portugal: US$7116,000; 19) Vietnam: US$6659,000; 20) Norway: US$5789,000. [Source: FAOSTAT, Food and Agriculture Organization (U.N.), fao.org]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Mostly National Geographic articles. Also David Attenborough books, Live Science, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Natural History magazine, Discover magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2025