Exotic gastropods for sale: an assessment of land and aquatic snails in the South African pet trade
Tinyiko C. Shivambu, Ndivhuwo Shivambu, Colleen T. Downs
Abstract
Gastropods are amongst the most popular of the Mollusca in the pet trade, with\nglobalisation being the main contributing factor facilitating their establishment\nglobally. Although it is known that gastropods are kept as pets in South Africa,\nrelatively little has been documented on the trade for this group. Physical pet stores\nselling gastropod species were surveyed seasonally in South Africa, aiming to\ndetermine 1) the types of species sold, including their trade popularity, trade volume,\nand the biogeographic realms they originated from, and 2) seasonal variations in\ngastropod species traded. Six gastropod species were recorded in the South African\npet stores with three known invasives (Achatina fulica, A. immaculata, and Pomacea\ncanaliculata). Of these species, the African giant snail A. fulica and the channeled\ngolden apple snail P. canaliculata were the species with higher trade popularity\nthroughout the year. The trade of the other species fluctuated with seasons among\npet stores and provinces. Gastropod species sampled in this study originated from\nfour biogeographic realms, with two species from the Afrotropical and Neotropical\nrealms, and one each from the Indomalayan and the Palaearctic. The number of\ngastropod individuals observed in this study was relatively large; as a result, they\nmay pose a potential risk of invasion should they be released or escape captivity.\nThe pet trade industry at a national level needs to be regularly monitored and the\npolicies on selling invasive non-native species should be implemented to avoid the\nintroduction and establishment of potential invaders.