Amazonian animals are turning up for sale at a Bangkok wildlife market

A surge of South American wildlife has appeared for sale at Bangkok's Chatuchak Market over the past two years, according to a Mongabay investigation, as traffickers exploit a smuggling route running from the Peruvian Amazon to Southeast Asia. Marmosets, capuchin monkeys, tamarins, sloths, macaws, coatis, capybaras and even fish endemic to Brazil's Xingu River have all been documented at the market.

"The volume is greater. The diversity of species is greater," said Scott Roberton of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Investigators say animals are typically smuggled by river boat to Iquitos, Peru, then flown via Lima to Southeast Asia — a journey of more than 25 hours. Protected species from Colombia and elsewhere are often laundered through Peru using fraudulent permits falsely claiming captive-bred origins, according to the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC.

The toll on the animals is severe: roughly 70% of wild-caught animals die within six weeks of capture, and cages at the market have been documented holding animals in temperatures above 32°C with little water. A 2024 electrical fire at the market killed more than 1,000 animals, though it reopened quickly with municipal support. Conservationists also warn that crowding exotic and domestic species together raises the risk of zoonotic disease spread, including avian influenza.

Reporting by Gloria Dickie for Mongabay. Source: https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/why-is-amazonian-wildlife-turning-up-at-a-bangkok-market/