"Boss, why is the Western Hognose Snake so expensive? 4300 yuan!" Recently, in a reptile pet store in Binjiang District, Hangzhou, a smoky gray snake with brown spots was lazily coiled in its box. Buyer Xia was quite surprised when she saw the price.
"The price has already dropped considerably; it would have cost six or seven thousand yuan last year," shop owner Xu Changwei immediately responded.
In today's exotic pet market, some imported snakes are very popular. Reporters have learned that these imported snakes range in price from over 100,000 yuan to several thousand yuan, with prices skyrocketing depending on factors such as coloration and age, with no upper limit.
According to sellers, the main customer group for snake pets is young people aged 16-35. They get into collecting imported snakes for novelty and excitement, and they enjoy collecting different species to gain a sense of accomplishment. To cater to market demand, there are many shops specializing in imported snakes, and some online sellers are even selling the critically endangered Bambusa multiplex, also known as the "Blue Bamboo" snake by domestic enthusiasts.
Recently, Shenzhen Customs seized over a hundred illegally smuggled snakes from overseas, drawing widespread attention. According to Shenzhen Customs, this is not an isolated incident; in the past, there have been more than ten similar cases, most involving individuals attempting to smuggle snakes by strapping them to their bodies.
Why is this kind of smuggling so difficult to eradicate? As the investigation deepened, reporters gradually uncovered the hidden sources of snakes from abroad and a corner of the "kingdom of venomous snakes".
Inside a reptile pet shop in Hangzhou, rows of opaque black boxes are neatly arranged in a 20-30 square meter space. The pungent smell of snakes permeates the shop, and a few customers who occasionally stop to look at the prices find it irritating and quickly leave.
Compared to the mainstream pet market for cats and dogs, reptile shops are relatively quiet. But the owners are not idle; they are busy expanding their business online—some are preparing to livestream on their phones, while others are packing packages to ship snakes to other places.
On the morning of July 22, a reporter visited a pet snake shop in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, and observed that the trade in imported snakes has a unique market, with prices ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan, increasing with the rarity of the snake's color or age. For example, a four-year-old albino Texas rat snake sells for 15,000 to 30,000 yuan, while a five-year-old black king snake reaches 70,000 to 80,000 yuan.
Reporters learned that imported pet snakes priced at several thousand yuan are the most actively traded price range, which is why "snake speculation" is rampant. Moreover, these high-priced imported snakes, starting at tens of thousands of yuan, are not without market demand; several merchants claim they guarantee to sell several snakes every year.
Within the industry, pet snakes have also been given "financial attributes," with price surges, crashes, and bottom-fishing stockpiling being common practices in the snake market. If a sharp drop occurs, some experienced sellers will buy at the bottom, waiting for the next market upturn before reselling.
"Since June, due to market speculation on albino hognose snakes, claiming them to be rare and aesthetically valuable, many consumers have followed suit and bought them," Xu Changwei told reporters. This has led to a lack of demand for non-albino hognose snakes, causing their prices to plummet by 30% and become more than 1,000 yuan cheaper than before. "Currently, some people are also hoarding ordinary hognose snakes, hoping to profit from future price increases."
The trade in imported snakes is also booming on major online social media and e-commerce platforms. Interviews revealed that some agents and breeders are using live streaming to drive traffic to their private domains for sales. On good nights, they can sell five or six imported pet snake hatchlings priced at 500-800 yuan each. Furthermore, snakes are also being sold on social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Tieba.
During the investigation and visits to more than ten stores, when the reporter, posing as a customer, inquired about the origin of the imported snakes and whether they could provide inspection and quarantine certificates, the owners and employees generally avoided the topic. "Don't ask that. You're just keeping them for fun, why worry about so much?" "These imported snakes have already bred for more than ten generations, how could I possibly know?"...
Zhou Min, one of the online sellers, is the owner of a physical reptile pet store in Binjiang District, Hangzhou. He told reporters that the best-selling corn snake is a new favorite in the market. It is non-venomous and small in size. "A brood of corn snakes that hatched last month, with more than 30 snakes, was sold out in my WeChat Moments as soon as they hatched. Most buyers chose to have them delivered by express."
Because transporting live animals via courier is suspected of being illegal, merchants have devised a way to evade supervision. According to Zhou Min, he often wraps snakes in stockings, secures them with two chicken feet or similar items, stuffs them with other miscellaneous items, and ships them as household goods. "Some courier services are strict in their checks, while others are more lenient."
During the reporter's investigation, a shop assistant mentioned that "those snakes have been hatched for over 30 days and are ready to be sold." It is understood that most of the imported snakes sold on the market are introduced and hatched domestically. However, tracing their origins, some are still illegally brought into the country.
Fei Jie, who specializes in importing species, revealed to reporters that some people take chances with smuggling snakes from abroad. In order to get away with it, some people even put the snakes in the lining of their shoes or carry them close to their bodies.
In July, Shenzhen Customs announced that a male passenger was intercepted and inspected at the Futian Port in Shenzhen. Customs found six drawstring canvas bags sealed with tape in his trouser pockets. The 104 live snakes seized included five species: milk snake, western hognose snake, corn snake, Texas rat snake, and bull snake.
According to Shenzhen Customs, they have recently uncovered more than ten cases of illegally imported snakes. Because the young snakes are small and easily concealed, any that escape are often auctioned off at high prices or used for breeding.
Furthermore, due to their scarcity, some imported snakes have long been in a seller's market, and some unscrupulous merchants even engage in the trade of endangered imported snakes, earning profits ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of yuan upon successful resale. Such exorbitant profits have prompted some to take the risk of smuggling imported snakes.
Rare species such as the African black mamba, Indonesian island bamboo pit viper, South American viper, and green tree python are considered "high-end goods" by snake enthusiasts. Those in the know understand that some of these snakes are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but they are also bred and sold in China.
During the on-site investigation, the reporter did not see any endangered foreign snakes in physical snake pet stores. However, after searching some online merchants and social media platforms, it was found that there were many accounts that posted information about the sale of endangered foreign snakes. They often posed as "snake pet enthusiasts" and shared their daily lives of raising dozens of foreign snakes online. Some foreign snake links were even accompanied by sales information such as "South American viper starting at tens of thousands of yuan".
A reporter contacted five netizens posing as a consumer. Their accounts indicated they were located in Guangdong, Liaoning, Hunan, and Zhejiang. One netizen, identified as a "snake pet enthusiast" from Changsha, explained that these endangered imported snakes often fetch tens of thousands of yuan, and even hybrid offspring can sell for 2,000-2,800 yuan each. When the reporter requested to see the snakes in person, the netizen stated, "It's inconvenient to pick them up in person; they can only be delivered by courier."
“After these snakes enter the country, merchants often dare not sell them openly. Some directly recommend them to old buyers for private transactions.” Lin Jian, who had purchased corn snakes from overseas, told reporters that after a transaction, he would receive information about smuggled snakes from overseas for sale, saying, “If you are interested, you can be invited to join the group.” “We will notify you in the group when we have goods.”
"The base price for ordinary smuggled snakes is generally 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per snake, while some endangered snakes from overseas can even sell for more than 100,000 yuan per snake," Lin Jian told reporters. He explained that "second-hand snake dealers" usually buy these snakes from overseas to breed them and then sell the offspring they breed. "Taking an ordinary overseas snake as an example, the 30 baby snakes that hatch can each be sold for four or five thousand yuan, and often a single breeding can yield dozens of times the profit."
Reporters learned that this shady business has existed for over a decade, and the entire industry chain of importing, breeding, and selling snakes is quite complete, making it an open secret within the industry. Some industry insiders also explained that if a particular imported snake species is in short supply on the market, it becomes necessary to import these snakes for breeding, leading some to illegally purchase or smuggle them.
"The entry of snakes and other reptiles is one of the goods with a long regulatory chain and high quarantine requirements," a relevant person in charge of Shenzhen Customs told reporters. In order to prevent the cross-border spread of animal infectious diseases and parasitic diseases, the customs has adopted strict quarantine and supervision measures for the trade in live animals, including multiple links such as quarantine access, quarantine approval, overseas quarantine, port quarantine, domestic isolation quarantine, and laboratory testing.
According to the Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China and the Entry and Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine Law of the People's Republic of China and its implementing regulations, it is prohibited to introduce alien species without approval, and it is forbidden to carry or mail live animals and plants into the country. Those who violate these regulations will be held legally responsible.
Shao Yongfei, deputy director of the Criminal and Civil Law Department at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, who previously worked at the Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau for nine years before becoming a lawyer, has handled numerous smuggling cases. He explained to reporters that bringing snakes from abroad into the country without evading customs supervision generally results in administrative penalties; however, concealing them in suitcases or clothing to evade customs supervision constitutes smuggling.
"If the number, amount, or value of the imported snakes carried by the person does not reach the threshold for smuggling, the customs will generally confiscate them and impose a fine of up to 100,000 yuan," said Shao Yongfei. He added that if there is smuggling, transshipment, sale, purchase, or breeding of endangered or precious wild snakes from abroad, every link in the industrial chain is suspected of committing a crime and should be prosecuted for smuggling.
Yu Hao, a relevant official from the Enforcement Team of the Shangcheng District Market Supervision Bureau in Hangzhou, told reporters that any breeding or cultivation of imported snakes without permission from the market supervision department is illegal. Furthermore, domestic businesses wishing to sell wild snakes must obtain a wildlife management license issued by the local forestry department.
Furthermore, snakes have a strong ability to reproduce and adapt, and if abandoned and released into the wild, they will have a negative impact on the ecological balance. A research report titled "Current Status of Invasive Alien Species and the Construction of Prevention and Control Systems," released by the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on June 7, 2024, mentioned that the brown tree snake, native to Southeast Asia and Australia, caused the extinction of most of the 25 local bird species in Guam, Japan.
How should those responsible for invasive species be held accountable? In March 2021, Article 344 of the Criminal Law, newly added to the crime of "illegally introducing, releasing, or abandoning invasive alien species," officially came into effect. It stipulates that those who illegally introduce, release, or abandon invasive alien species under serious circumstances shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and may also be fined.
"However, abandoned invasive species are usually not widespread, or it takes a long time for the ecological damage to become apparent," Shao Yongfei told reporters. He added that if criminal liability is only pursued after serious ecological consequences have occurred, it's practically difficult to trace the source. Currently, there are no actual cases of people being convicted of this crime, and how to hold people accountable still needs further clarification.
In response, the Zhejiang Provincial Wildlife Management Station advised against keeping imported snake species as pets. Furthermore, if consumers wish to discontinue keeping these animals, they should hand them over to local wildlife rescue centers for proper disposal.
