Some of the bright orange bats were framed in shadow boxes, their boldly striped wings spread wide. Bigger, more charismatic species like elephants and tigers usually come to mind when the illicit animal trade is mentioned. But a study published this month has revealed a flourishing black market in stuffed and mounted bats that, until now, has gone largely unnoticed. In the United States, especially, bats are openly sold, intact or as skeletons, on e-commerce sites like Etsy, eBay and Amazon. “Instead, they could be inadvertently supporting the population decline of this bat species in the wild.”

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Persons: they’re, ”, Nistara Randhawa, Davis Organizations: eBay, University of California, of Wildlife Research Locations: United States