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Globally, illegal sport hunting can threaten prey populations when unregulated. Due to its covert nature, illegal sport hunting poses challenges for data collection, hindering efforts to understand the full extent of its impacts. We gathered social media data to analyze patterns of illegal sport hunting and wildlife depletion across Brazil. We collected data for 2 years (2018-2020) across 5 Facebook groups containing posts depicting pictures of illegal sport hunting events of native fauna. We described and mapped these hunting events by detailing the number of hunters involved, the number of species, the mean body mass of individuals, and the number and biomass of individuals hunted per unit area, stratified by Brazilian biome. We also examined the effects of defaunation on hunting yield and composition via regression models, rank-abundance curves, and spatial interpolation. We detected 2046 illegal sport hunting posts portraying the hunting of 4658 animals (∼29 t of undressed meat) across all 27 states and 6 natural biomes of Brazil. Of 157 native species targeted by hunters, 19 are currently threatened with extinction. We estimated that 1414 hunters extracted 3251 kg/million km2. Some areas exhibited more pronounced wildlife depletion, in particular the Atlantic Forest and Caatinga biomes. In these areas, there was a shift from large mammals and reptiles to small birds as the main targeted taxa, and biomass extracted per hunting event and mean body mass across all taxonomic groups were lower than in other areas. Our results highlight that illegal sport hunting adds to the pressures of subsistence hunting and the wild meat trade on Brazil's wildlife populations. Enhanced surveillance efforts are needed to reduce illegal sport hunting levels and to develop well-managed sustainable sport hunting programs. These can support wildlife conservation and offer incentives for local communities to oversee designated sport hunting areas.

Exposición de la caza ilegal y la reducción de fauna en el país tropical más grande del mundo por medio de datos de las redes sociales Resumen En todo el mundo, la caza recreativa ilegal puede amenazar a las poblaciones de presas cuando no está regulada. Debido a su naturaleza encubierta, la caza recreativa ilegal plantea dificultades para la recopilación de datos, lo que dificulta la comprensión de su impacto. Recopilamos datos de redes sociales para analizar los patrones de caza recreativa ilegal y agotamiento de la vida silvestre en todo Brasil. Recopilamos datos durante 2 años (2018­2020) a través de cinco grupos de Facebook que contenían publicaciones que mostraban imágenes de eventos de caza recreativa ilegal de fauna nativa. Describimos y mapeamos estos eventos de caza detallando el número de cazadores involucrados, el número de especies, la masa corporal media de los individuos y el número y la biomasa de los individuos cazados por unidad de área, estratificados por bioma brasileño. También examinamos los efectos de la deforestación en el rendimiento y la composición de la caza mediante modelos de regresión, curvas de abundancia e interpolación espacial. Detectamos 2,046 puestos de caza recreativa ilegal que mostraban la caza de 4,658 animales (∼29 t de carne sin desollar) en los 27 estados y 6 biomas naturales de Brasil. De las 157 especies autóctonas objetivo de los cazadores, 18 están actualmente en peligro de extinción. Se calcula que 1,414 cazadores extrajeron 3,251 kg/millón de km2. Algunas zonas mostraron una defaunación más pronunciada, en particular los biomas de la Mata Atlántica y la Caatinga. En estas áreas, se produjo un cambio de grandes mamíferos y reptiles a pequeñas aves como principales taxones objetivo, y la biomasa extraída por evento de caza y la masa corporal media en todos los grupos taxonómicos fueron menores que en otras áreas. Nuestros resultados ponen de manifiesto que la caza recreativa ilegal se suma a las presiones de la caza de subsistencia y el comercio de carne salvaje sobre las poblaciones de fauna de Brasil. Es necesario intensificar los esfuerzos de vigilancia para reducir los niveles de caza recreativa ilegal y desarrollar programas de caza recreativa sostenibles y bien gestionados. Estos programas pueden contribuir a la conservación de la fauna y ofrecer incentivos a las comunidades locales para que supervisen las zonas designadas para la caza recreativa.

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Greater access to the Internet has boosted the online pet trade and especially enabled the trade in niche-targeted groups, such as venomous species. Despite their fearsome reputation, an array of venomous animals, such as snakes, spiders and scorpions arise interest among pet hobbyists, which exposes owners, sellers, and others involved in their transport and maintenance to potentially serious accidents by envenomation. To assess the potential risk to human health posed by the trade and ownership of venomous pet snakes, we examined social media posts trading or portraying native and exotic venomous species as pets (Facebook™ and YouTube™) and official seizures in Brazil between 2015 and 2020. In addition, we recorded all venomous snakebite events occurring in the country during the same period from the Brazilian Ministry of Health database. We compiled 114,931 venomous snakebite events resulting in over 600 human deaths. Bothrops spp. and Crotalus spp. were responsible for 86% and 10% of these events. We recorded 241 individual venomous snakes kept as pets of at least 16 species (seven native and nine non-native). The taxa with higher numbers of snakebites were also those most often kept as pets. Venomous pet snakes were sold at low prices, US$ 71.70 ± 18.44 on average. Our findings highlight a dangerous market, given the similarity of taxa raised as pets and those causing snakebites, combined with low availability of anti-venom for exotic species in Brazil. Additionally, several of the venomous pet snakes recorded are invasive species in many countries. Trade in venomous snakes is prohibited in Brazil, but the law is not well-enforced. To curb this illegal market and discourage consumer demand, we suggest that tougher penalties for sellers and owners should be considered, along with the development of awareness campaigns on the consequences of the snakebite injuries and the lack of antivenoms.

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