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Small Herbivores and Insectivores
We begin with bats -- order Chiroptera. There are about 1,000 known bat species in the world, ranging in size from the .05-ounce, 1½-inch-long Philippine bamboo bat, to a few species of flying foxes with wingspans approaching six feet. Many of the world's bats are under threat from habitat loss, and breeding colonies are often deliberately wiped out thanks to human ignorance. Bats are thought to exhibit a high incidence of rabies, and many people believe that they all are akin to vampires, even though there are only three species of vampire bats. The remaining majority of bats eat insects or fruit, or drink nectar, while a few, like the false vampire bats of Africa, Asia, and Australia, are predators. The majority of bats in the United States are insect-eaters, providing a valuable service by eliminating many tons of mosquitoes each year, and converting them into valuable fertilizer. In captivity, bats are not as uncommon as one might assume. Many people attempt to keep native bats as pets in the United States, usually resulting in the death of the bat from nutritional deficiencies. Smaller animals require larger amounts of food in relation to body size, and for tiny bats, a day of improper nutrition can be fatal. The more popular bats in the exotic pet trade are the larger fruit bats and flying foxes, but similarly to exotic birds in captivity, they are seldom given the exercise or enrichment they need. In most cases, the keeping of bats by individuals is against the law, due to their undeserved reputation for carrying rabies, but a caged bat is easy to hide, making the law difficult to enforce. Another side to the bat trade is the market for specimens; dead bats in jars of formaldehyde or mounted in framed wall hangings are available to virtually anyone, often from businesses claiming to be scientific supply companies. Many of these companies cannot or simply refuse to provide information concerning where the bats were obtained, and it is believed that many of the animals are trapped and killed for the sole purpose of being sold as specimens, including endangered bat species.
The oder Insectivora consists of moles, shrews, and similar animals, but it also includes the hedgehogs, which have become very popular in the pet trade. The hedgehogs most commonly kept as pets are the result of many generations of cross-breeding of two African species, the white-bellied hedgehog and the Algerian hedgehog. Like so many captive carnivores, these exotic hedgehogs have been selectively bred to produce various color varieties of aesthetic appeal to consumers. Even though they have only been imported into the United States since 1990, proponents of pet hedgehogs are quick to label the animals as domestic. It is important to understand that breeding two species together to produce a hybrid does not constitute a new species, nor does it produce a domestic animal; so-called domestic hedgehogs are still wild animals, with the distinction of being hybrids that would never occur naturally, as the two species' ranges do not overlap. (Read more.) Being so new to the marketplace, relatively little is known about hedgehogs with regard to their proper husbandry or veterinary care, or even what their lifespan should be. Even hedgehog breeders and dealers admit that they know little of the animals' nutritional requirements, and that insufficient research is being conducted in this area. Captive diets tend to be based more on commercial pet foods and vegetables, whereas wild hedgehogs typically eat large amounts of insects, spiders, and even small mammals, birds, and reptiles. This disparity between their natural diet and their diets in captivity may effectively shorten the animals' lives and lead to a host of unknown health issues.
The lagomorphs are rabbits and their relatives; many people believe them to be rodents, and they are quite similar, but scientists place them into their own order. Rabbits have been bred in captivity since the Roman Empire, and the domestic breeds derived from the European rabbit will be discussed in the Companion Animals section. In this section, we will focus primarily on rabbits used in fur farming. As with mink and foxes (read more), rabbits are frequent victims of the fur trade; an estimated 70 million rabbits are killed for their fur each year in France alone. Some industry defenders claim that the fur is a byproduct of the meat industry, but the rabbits raised for meat must be slaughtered at a young age, while rabbits killed for fur need to be older animals with thicker pelts. Rabbit meat and rabbit fur come from two, separate industries. In a sickening twist, a fair amount of the pelts marketed as rabbit fur are actually domestic dog and cat pelts from parts of Asia, and without DNA tests, it is virtually impossible to tell the difference. Another manifestation of the rabbit fur business is the shearing of angora rabbits; like other fur farm rabbits, they live their lives in tiny, wire-frame cages, but angoras have particularly delicate feet, making their living circumstances especially painful, and leading to frequent infections. The shearing process results in inevitable cuts and scrapes, which can also become infected when the rabbits are returned to their filthy cages. Because male angoras produce far less wool than females, they are often killed at birth. The simplest, most direct way to put an end to these horrific practices is to boycott all fur products, and to educate consumers; public education campaigns have led to a decline in the fur market in North America and Europe, but continued work is needed to eliminate this cruel industry altogether.
The pangolins of Asia and Africa, sometimes called scaly anteaters, would seem a strange choice for the wildlife trade, but they are under immense pressure both from the exotic pet trade and for their use in traditional medicine. Their meat is considered a tonic and a delicacy, and their scales, which are actually modified bundles of hair, are used to supposedly cure a variety of ailments. Once stripped of its scales, the animal's skin is also used to produce a uniquely patterned leather. In captivity, the care of pangolins can prove quite problematic, as their natural diet consists largely of ants. Pangolin scales are also quite sharp, and a defensive animal can use them to slice its caretaker.
Rodents are familiar to people the world over, in many cases as unwanted pests in the home, and as carriers of disease. Several of the larger species seem to have little in common with mice, and as always, the more bizarre animals are sought by wildlife traders and collectors. The largest of the rodents, the capybara, can weigh well over 100 pounds, with some sources claiming they reach 200. These semi-aquatic rodents from Brazil and Argentina are sometimes herded for their meat, but their massive proportions have made them a novelty for the exotic pet market. Some websites suggest that capybaras can be trained to perform tricks, while others recommend them for exotic animal ranches for meat production. Many an American rancher has been burned by the exotic meat market; over the years, a number of species have been successfully marketed as 'the next big thing,' and demands have been initially high, but in about the time it takes to build a sustainable enterprise, the demand inevitably fizzles out, as American consumers return to their traditional red meats and poultry. The result is a major surplus of exotic animals that no one wants, and many thousands may be euthanized, or worse, turned loose to either die of starvation or wreak havoc on the local ecosystem. If capybara ranching becomes the 'next big thing' in the States, the disaster that follows will be more than the current handful of accredited sanctuaries can handle.
Cavies bear similarities to the capybara in appearance, but are of course quite a bit smaller. The familiar Guinea pig is a type of cavy, and its popularity as a pet has led some to experiment with wild cavy species. As 'jumpy' as Guinea pigs tend to be, wild cavies are moreso. The mara, or Patagonian cavy, looks less like a Guinea pig and more like a hare, and weighs up to 35 pounds. As dictated by the 'bigger is better' paradign, some cavy enthusiasts see the mara as the ultimate prize, and they have become fairly common in captivity. One breeder's website recommends an enclosure size of 100 square feet for these large, active animals. As an alternative he recommends keeping them inside and paper training them. In contrast, Animal Centers of Excellence recommends a minimum enclosure size of 400 square feet for animal species one tenth the size of a mara. It quickly becomes apparent that the best interests of the animals are not the primary concern of exotic animal breeders; the bottom line -- profit, will always come first, which means maximized space and volume sales. When animals and profits mix, the animals usually lose.
Another farm-raised rodent, the chinchilla, is also another casualty of the fur trade. Chinchilla pelts command some of the highest prices of any furbearer, and while the wholesale slaughter of these animals goes on unchecked in the United States and abroad, fewer than 10,000 chinchillas remain in the wild in the Andes mountains. As with all fur farm animals, chinchillas receive insufficient nutrition, live in tiny, filthy cages, and suffer brutal deaths at the hands of their captors. Neck snapping and genital electrocution are two methods commonly used to kill fur farm chinchillas. The large numbers of chinchillas on factory fur farms has led to a surplus overflow into the pet trade; the fur lobby has successfully kept the animals classified as domestic by the USDA, and as such they are legally obtainable by virtually anyone, in spite of the fact that they are identical to the wild chinchillas that were first imported into the US for the fur trade in the 1920s. Their special dietary needs, nocturnal habits, and flighty dispositions make them a poor choice for a pet, and pet chinchilla owners should be aware that by purchasing a chinchilla, they are supporting fur farming.
Who would want a porcupine for a pet? While both New and Old World porcupines are covered in quills, they are used only for defense, and are not generally a problem with individuals that are used to being handled. This does not mean, however, that these wild animals should be considered pets, as they have special behavioral and dietary needs, and like all wild animals, they are best kept wild. Porcupine species from North and South America, Africa, and Asia, and the Mediterraneans are not uncommon in the wild animal trade, and collectors pay top dollar for them. The North African crested porcupine is the largest porcupine in the world, and as with the largest or smallest of anything, this puts it in demand. Similar porcupines are found throughout Africa and Asia, and in parts of Europe. The smaller brush-tailed porcupines, more rat-like in appearance, are also found in Africa and Asia. The North American porcupine is fairly similar in appearance to the crested porcupines, but its quills are barbed, making them more difficult to remove once they have punctured the skin of the porcupine's attacker. Few people in the United States ever see a wild porcupine, even though they are found throughout most of the western states and in New England. The prehensile-tailed porcupines of South America, like the Brazilian porcupine, are more elongate and their quills are more obvious than those of other species. The rarely seen hairy dwarf porcupines of Mexico, Central and South America are just the opposite, with few of their quills immediately visible. Besides being the occasional victims of an unethical animal trade, all porcupines are under threat from habitat loss, and many of them are pursued by hunters for their meat, which some consider a delicacy.
By the year 1600, the Eurasian beaver had been trapped to near extinction, and fur trappers turned to the American beaver as a source for the pelts used to make top hats in western Europe. Over the next few centuries, trappers nearly wiped out American beavers as well. Today, beaver populations have recovered in most areas, thanks to the successful efforts of conservationists. The smaller muskrat was also killed for its fur, but it was never considered as valuable as the beaver, which was considered at one point in US history to be the single most valuable commodity in existence. In the early 1900s, the fur industry committed a further assault on the environment with the introduction of the South American nutria, another large, aquatic rodent, to the bayous of Louisiana. Nutrias were later relocated to other areas along the Gulf coast as a means of controlling aquatic vegetation, but they have proven too much for temperate ecosystems, where they undermine stream banks and decimate wetland plants. In some areas, nightly patrols are dispatched to shoot nutrias on sight, with little lasting impact.
Squirrels are a common sight in most of the US, but they are also very common in the wild pet trade. Besides the North American species commonly available, exotic species like the beautiful Prevost's squirrel from Southeast Asia are also popular, however expensive. Squirrels are often docile when they are young, but become aggressive as they grow older, attacking their caretakers for seemingly no reason. As with other rodent bites, squirrel bites can become painfully infected, and squirrels may also be carriers of dangerous diseases like the bubonic plague. In addition to the tree squirrels, flying squirrels are highly sought after as pets. The northern and southern flying squirrels of North America are well represented in the wildlife trade, but the giant flying squirrel from Asia is also fairly common. Flying squirrels are nocturnal and require a good deal of space -- more than the average home can provide.
Marmots are very large ground squirrels, some of which exceed thirty inches in length. The best known of the marmots is the groundhog, or woodchuck, made popular by the holiday named after it. Apart from their role in a national holiday, groundhogs are difficult pets in that they hibernate in the winter and their burrowing and gnawing behaviors can cause mass destruction in the home, reducing furniture and drywall to dust. Wild species like the groundhog, that are not under threat of extinction, serve no legitimate purpose in captivity, and because they are not commonly raised by scientists for conservation purposes, their captive husbandry requirements are largely unknown.
Prairie dogs are also ground squirrels, living in large colonies across the Great Plains. Prairie dog towns are vital habitat for a number of other species, including the critically endangered black-footed ferret, which feeds on them and lives in their burrows. In spite of their ecological value, ranchers and developers view prairie dogs as a nuisance, and go to great lengths to eradicate them. Many ranchers believe that cattle and horses will accidentally step into prairie dog burrows and break their legs, although there is insufficient evidence to support this idea. In some areas, prairie dog shootouts are community events where families gather to indulge in bloodlust. Where prairie dog towns are hindering development, a new industry has emerged; the animals are sucked from their homes with a giant vacuum, and propelled into a holding tank. They are then exported to Japan, where they are sold as pets. Pet prairie dogs do not generally last very long, denied the opportunity to dig burrows or to socialize with others of their kind.
The sloths (order Xenarthra) of Central and South America are divided into two groups: two-toed and three-toed sloths. All are fairly similar in appearance and behavior; they spend the vast majority of their time high in the rain forest trees, where they eat leaves and twigs, climbing down to the forest floor about once a week to relieve themselves. They are slow-moving and have slow metabolisms; their body temperatures typically run around ten degrees cooler than other mammals of a similar size. They are adept at moving through the trees, and they swim fairly well, but they are very vulnerable on the ground, able to move only by dragging themselves along. Two-toed sloths have a somewhat more generalized diet, also consuming various fruits and berries; their ability to eat more readily available foods and their slightly more active lifestyle have made them the more popular sloths in the exotic animal trade. The problem with keeping sloths in captivity is that unlike most mammals, they thermoregulate, using the sun to warm themselves up; sloths need basking areas similar to those utilized by reptiles. Without the proper body temperature, their digestive systems do not function properly, and they can starve to death with full stomachs.
Armadillos are closely related to sloths, but bear few obvious similarities. Their various species can be found from the southern United States through Argentina. They range in size from the 70-pound giant armadillo to the four-ounce pink fairy armadillo. All armadillo species have some configuration of tough plating over the dorsal surface of their bodies and on the tops of their heads, and many are capable of curling into a tight ball, using the plates to protect their softer undersides. Armadillos have powerful claws for digging, and spend a good deal of time underground. They feed on insects and small invertebrates, with some species taking carrion and plant material. The native nine-banded armadillo is frequently kept in captivity, along with a few of the more exotic species; like so many wild species, there is still a great deal of information to be learned about their nutritional needs and veterinary care, and they are nocturnal, making them less than ideal housemates. Armadillos are also known to transmit diseases to humans, including tuburculosis, leprosy, and the plague.
Finally, we come to the last group we'll discuss in this section, the anteaters of Central and South America. The giant anteater is a ground-dwelling species that grows up to 80 pounds, and lives in a variety of habitats. The northern and southern tamanduas and the silky anteater are tree-dwelling species, the tamanduas general weighing in the twelve to fifteen pound range, and silky anteaters weighing in at a mere ten ounces. As their name implies, anteaters eat large quantities of ants, as well as termites and other insects. The silky anteater eats only insects, while the others sometimes consume fruit and possibly carrion. All anteaters are armed with large, hooked claws, which aid in the extraction of insects from their colonies in the trunks of trees. They also make handy weapons that can be used against misguided exotic animal collectors. In spite of the difficulty in feeding and caring for them properly, tamanduas are common in the exotic animal trade, and giant anteaters are fairly easy to obtain as well. Silky anteaters are likely to see growing popularity in the trade due to their small size, but their strictly insectivorous diet will make their proper husbandry problematic. As with all wild animals, captivity should be a last resort, not a hobby or a way to turn a profit.
Posted on January 8, 2007
