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Heys, Chloe Elizabeth and Smith, Emily and Fiennes, Sicily (2025) Investigating the illegal online trade of Indonesian parrots (Psittacine). [DataSet]
Description
Targeted for characteristics such as their colourful appearance, intelligence, and ability to recognize the human voice, parrots (order Psittaciformes) have become a coveted commodity. They are therefore common victims of the illegal wildlife trade, which in turn has contributed to their overall decline. Many of the world’s most traded and threatened parrot species originate from Indonesia. Yet Indonesia is also a renowned transit and market country for (illegal) parrot trade. Our study is the first of its kind to document in detail the online trade of all parrot species on one of Indonesia’s most popular social media platforms, Facebook, as pertaining to the trade within Indonesia. Over the period of 1 January 2020 until 31 August 2021, we analysed 283 posts, containing 861 identifiable parrots of 22 species across 38 Facebook user groups. Employing visual and textual analysis, we find clear trends for certain species that we highlight as a potential indicator for targeting. Overt indicators of illegality were common in visual references, despite textual references being coded to avoid detection. Finally, we find the online illegal trade of parrots increased during the global pandemic, despite the stricter approach taken by Facebook regarding trade in live animals on their platform. Overall, our analysis confirms the importance of Facebook as a virtual marketplace for parrots, and it is clear more rigorous monitoring of social media is needed to counter the harmful consequences of the illegal wildlife trade.
This dataset records the abundance and diversity of parrot (Psittaciformes) species identified as being traded illegally via the social media platform, Facebook. Our study exclusively focussed on parrot species. Our study period covered 1st January 2020 to 31st August 2021.
This dataset contains information regarding the group type of Facebook group analysed, the date the bird was posted for sale, alongside the species identified, the abundance of species observed in posts, and physical health characteristics of birds observed for sale. We also note any identifiers of how birds were illegally caught and captured, alongside the type of media used in the post (such as photo or video).
There is a separate tab for the species abbreviations used in the main dataset.
| Research / Data Type: | Collection - various types |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | illegal wildlife trade (IWT); Parrots -- Captivity; Parrots - Wild; Social media; Facebook |
| Depositing User: | Christopher Waddington |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Dec 2025 14:09 |
| Revision: | 10 |
| URI: | https://data.lancashire.ac.uk/id/eprint/650 |
Related Resources
Investigating t ... ts (Psittacine) |
Investigating t ... ts (Psittacine) |
