Covid-19 pandemic puts illegal wildlife trade in the spotlight
Countries around the world are in a state of emergency, with millions of citizens in lockdown, their movements restricted or severely curtailed as a result of the global pandemic unleashed by the novel coronavirus. Economies are facing an historic downturn as the world confronts a crisis unprecedented in peace time. While hundreds of millions currently feel the effects of this virus, just a few months ago the crisis was brewing in the body of just one human, and before that, in a non-human. The virus is thought most likely to have originated in a bat and passed to a human through another, and thus far undetermined, species. Some researchers have proposed the pangolin as a possible vector. The outbreak is thought to have originated in a so-called "wet" market in Wuhan. Wet markets are markets where live and dead animals—domestic and wild—are sold, with some freshly slaughtered on site. This...