Company in Ecuador breeds rare frogs, trying to stop illegal pet trade

Ecuador is home to over 500 frog species and many face risks from the illegal pet trade. One company thinks it knows how to stop it.

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nationalgeographic.com / By Sarah Gibbens

Conservationists in Ecuador have taken a controversial approach to fighting the country’s illegal frog trade—they’ve entered it themselves.

Instead of poaching frogs from the wild, biologists working for the private company Wikiri are hoping to undercut the black market for rare pet frogs by supplying frogs bred in a lab.

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Since 2011, the company has been commercially breeding rare frogs. It now raises 12 different species that are sold to buyers in North America, Japan, and some parts of Europe for as much as $600 apiece. In a news story by the news agency Agence France-Presse revealed that the company sells roughly 500 frogs annually. By comparison, AFP reported, around 7,000 wild frogs are exported from throughout Latin America to be sold around the world. Read Article