By Adam Toomes, University of Adelaide

Growing up in an industrial town in the north of England, my early connection with conservation was something of a long-distance relationship. I knew I wanted to spend my life interacting with nature and quickly developed a particular fondness for reptiles (I would only later learn what an Ecologist was, let alone a Herpetologist). This started in the form of documentaries, but I knew I would need to study Science if I wanted to have real experiences as part of a career.

Yet when asked “so you want to work in a Zoo?” my answer was always No. Somehow, I knew that I preferred to interact with wild animals and natural ecosystems, and there was something about the captive context that I found hard to engage with.

Yet as a young teenager, the occasional volunteer gig at Aquariums and Wildlife Parks was enough to scratch the itch. Moving to South Australia as a young adult was life changing from that perspective, with a seemingly endless supply of Conservation Parks across coastal to arid environments.

The illegal trade of wildlife was always on my radar as conservation threat, yet I knew little of it outside of high-profile cases such as the ivory trade and trophy hunting. Things changed when, as an undergraduate student, I had the opportunity to visit Cambodia and discover not only the sheer diversity of species affected by trade, but also the variety of reasons why someone might illegally trade wildlife.

Previously I had an overly simplistic view of wildlife poachers – that they were opportunistic criminals motivated by greed. This trip gave me a new perspective – that unethical or unsustainable acts can nonetheless have sympathetic motivation – and it set me on a trajectory to try and improve my understanding of an incredibly complex topic.

My PhD topic is therefore probably of no surprise. I’m studying the potential biosecurity impacts of non-native species traded as pets in Australia, but am equally interested in the role of overseas pet demand for endemic Australian species and the potential conservation implications.

Animal poaching is never acceptable, but I find it especially unsympathetic when the demand for poaching comes from private hobbyists with a high degree of expendable income. To that end, I am focusing my efforts on characterising pet trade dynamics (e.g., by monitoring online trade) so that I can contribute to effective prevention of illegal trade and recommend ways to improve the sustainability of trade from a management perspective.

I have come to love Australian fauna and count myself very fortunate to be in a position to help conserve them.