No animal large or small, strange or beautiful, it seems, escapes the attention of wildlife traffickers. One of the latest species being poached relentlessly for the exotic pet trade is what at first glance might seem like an unlikely candidate as a pet: the Bornean earless monitor lizard. Yet that…

They were selling slow lorises, binturongs, barred eagle owls, leopard cats and dusky leaf monkeys. On Facebook, no less. The protected animals were being peddled on the Facebook group Peminat Haiwan Exotic Malaysia (“Exotic Animal Fans in Malaysia”), which had nearly 8,000 members who could freely post pictures of exotic…