Estimating the extent and structure of trade in horticultural orchids via social media

The wildlife trade is a lucrative industry involving thousands of animal and plant species. The increasing use of the internet for both legal and illegal wildlife trade is well documented, but there is evidence that trade may be emerging on new online technologies such as social media. Using the orchid trade as a case study, we conducted the first systematic survey of wildlife trade on an international social-media website. We focused on themed forums (groups), where people with similar interests can interact by uploading images or text (posts) that are visible to other group members. We used social-network analysis to examine the ties between 150 of these orchid-themed groups to determine the structure of the network. We found 4 communities of closely linked groups based around shared language. Most trade occurred in a community that consisted of English-speaking and Southeast Asian groups. In addition to the network analysis, we randomly sampled 30 groups from the whole network to assess the prevalence of trade in cultivated and wild plants. Of 55,805 posts recorded over 12 weeks, 8.9% contained plants for sale, and 22-46% of these posts pertained to wild-collected orchids. Although total numbers of posts about trade were relatively small, the large proportion of posts advertising wild orchids for sale supports calls for better monitoring of social media for trade in wild-collected plants. El mercado de vida silvestre es una industria lucrativa que involucra a miles de especies de plantas y animales. El uso creciente del internet para el mercado de vida silvestre, tanto legal como ilegal, está bien documentado, aunque existen evidencias de que el mercado puede estar surgiendo en nuevas tecnologías en línea, como las redes sociales. Con el mercado de orquídeas como estudio de caso, realizamos el primer censo sistemático del mercado de vida silvestre en una red social internacional. Nos enfocamos en foros temáticos (grupos), en los que las personas con intereses similares pueden interactuar subiendo imágenes o textos (publicaciones) que son visibles para otros miembros del grupo. Utilizamos el análisis de redes sociales para examinar las conexiones entre 150 de estos grupos sobre orquídeas y así determinar la estructura de la red. Encontramos cuatro comunidades de grupos cercanamente conectados con base en un idioma compartido. La mayor parte del mercado ocurrió en una comunidad que consistió de grupos angloparlantes del sureste asiático. Además del anális