People Are Using TikTok to Sell Endangered Animals to Eat

People are using TikTok to sell endangered animals to eat

By Sam Meadows edited by Andrea Thompson

Content warning: This article depicts violence against endangered animals.

Critically endangered animals are being offered for sale as bushmeat on TikTok, according to a new study. The work, recently published in Nature conservationhighlights the growing role social media plays in the global illegal wildlife trade.

Bushmeat – meat from wild animals – is commonly consumed in many African and Asian countries. Although some people hunt for personal consumption, many hunters sell their meat to regional traders, who may then resell it to families or restaurants.

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The new study builds on older research linking social media to the wildlife trade. A 2023 study, for example, showed how Facebook was used by the bushmeat trade in West Africa. Today, TikTok is booming in Africa, leading an international team of researchers to examine its potential role in the illegal wildlife trade in Lomé, Togo.

Researchers assessed 80 videos from two public TikTok accounts, recording about 27 species and 3,526 individual animals, including endangered pangolins and a vulnerable antelope species. These accounts were mainly used to promote meat for sale in physical markets in Lomé rather than directly via TikTok, explains Angie Elwin, head of research at the NGO World Animal Protection and co-author of the study.

“Platforms like TikTok have essentially become virtual markets, which allow sellers to promote wild meat to a much wider audience than traditional roadside stalls or urban markets,” she says. “This brings new consumers to the market and potentially increases demand and accessibility. »

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.

Researchers are concerned about the growing bushmeat trade, both because it increases pressure on endangered species and because it is associated with a high risk of disease transmission from animals to humans.

Jack Jenkins, an anthropologist at Durham University in England, spent six months in Sierra Leone following hunters and bushmeat traders to better understand the health threats the practice can pose. One such threat “could be a new virus, which could cause a new epidemic, or even a pandemic,” says Jenkins, who was not involved in the new research. “This is a particular concern in Sierra Leone because of the history of Ebola.”

Endangered species face many threats, but the growing commercialization of the bushmeat trade is “concerning,” says Christian Plowman, an expert in wildlife cybercrime at the nonprofit International Fund for Animal Welfare, who was also not involved in the research.

Other researchers say it is important to consider the cultural significance of bushmeat. Jenkins says many people in Sierra Leone prefer it to other, more commercialized meats like beef or chicken. “It’s something people have been eating for generations,” he says. Many hunters are unfamiliar with wildlife protection laws and do not differentiate between protected and unprotected species, he adds.

The new study recognizes the importance of wild meat as a source of protein and income, but Elwin emphasizes that using social media to promote bushmeat is different from hunting an animal for subsistence.

“What social media essentially does is push commerce well beyond mere subsistence,” she says, “by amplifying commercial sales, normalizing demand, and further endangering endangered species like pangolins.”

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