From tigers to axolotls: Why people keep exotic pets in Russia

1. The exotic pet trade, both legal and illegal, plays a crucial role in wildlife overhar vesting and biodiversity loss world-wide, but drivers of demand for exotic pets are still poorly understood and under-studied. Some geographical areas, including the post-Soviet states, have little or no relevant research. 2. We conducted open-ended in-depth interviews with 27 exotic pet owners in Russia. The research involved participants who collectively owned over 90 pet animals, including endangered and critically endangered species. 3. The interviewees were classified into four main categories according to their motivations and reasons for keeping exotic pets. ‘Life-Savers’ were motivated by pity; ‘Accidental Owners’ acquired animals by chance; ‘New Experience Seekers’ were looking for something different and unusual; and ‘Collectors’ acquired animals based on their specific characteristics. Species and provenance preferences, level of husbandry knowledge, understanding of the legislation and rights varied among exotic pet owners often reflecting their different motivations. Despite their differ-ences, together they formed a distinctive sub-community of pet owners. 4. Our findings provide essential

estimated that 22% of world wildlife trade is driven by exploitation for the entertainment industry and pet trade (Baker et al., 2013), with live animals traded both legally and illegally to satisfy the demand for exotic pets. Trade and use of such species as pets cause negative impacts to people, such as spread of zoonosis and injuries caused by animal attacks, and to biodiversity such as introduction of invasive species, population declines and species extinction (Baker et al., 2013;Chomel, Belotto, & Meslin, 2007;Lockwood et al., 2019;Lucca, 2013).
Various definitions exist of what is actually considered to be an exotic pet (e.g. Brown & Nye, 2006;Bush, Baker, & Macdonald, 2014;Hergovich, Mauerer, & Riemer, 2011). To avoid any misconception, we chose Mitchell and Tully's (2009) definition of exotic pets, recently applied by Alves and Rocha (2018). According to this definition, exotic pets are 'strikingly, excitingly, or mysteriously different or unusual'. Since this definition can be interpreted in different ways, we preferred a more simplified broad definition that incorporates all non-farm and nondomesticated animals, including both native and non-native species.
The need to change human behaviour is increasingly recognized if conservation goals are to be achieved (Balmford & Cowling, 2006;Olmedo, Sharif, & Milner-Gulland, 2018;St John, Edwards-Jones, & Jones, 2010;Wright et al., 2015). Understanding motivation for behaviour is central to any policy or programme focused on behaviour change but research has been slow to emerge. This is especially the case with the exotic pet trade. Previous research has tended to focus on actual behaviour and insights on the pet owners' characteristics (Alves & Rocha, 2018;Hergovich et al., 2011;Kidd, Kelley, & Kidd, 1983;Vonk, Patton, & Galvan, 2016) and the correlation between pet owner's personalities and preferred pet taxa (Hergovich et al., 2011;Kidd et al., 1983;Vonk et al., 2016). Others have addressed the evolution and patterns of the exotic pet trade by estimating trade volumes by taxa or species and main trade routes (Bush et al., 2014;Robinson, Griffiths, St. John, & Roberts, 2015). Although these findings are highly important in understanding the exotic pet trade, motivations and practices linked to exotic pet keeping are still understudied, particularly outwith the US, Australia and EU, and require much more research attention (Lockwood et al., 2019).
In this research, we explore and create a typology for motivations behind ownership of exotic pets in Russia. We chose Russia due to the lack of the relevant social science research in this country, but also because it is known that the illegal exotic pet trade to, from and within Russia includes species listed under CITES Appendices II and I, and hence poses a threat to global biodiversity (IFAW, 2018;Nekaris, Campbell, Coggins, Rode, & Nijman, 2013;TRAFFIC, 2019;Wyatt, 2009). In addition, in December 2018, Russia introduced a Federal Law on Responsible Treatment of Animals (2018). Targeting exotic pet ownership among other animal-related concerns, the government also compiled a List of Animals Prohibited from Keeping (2019) that came into force in January 2020. Understanding how pet owners react to this new law is also an important aspect of our study, as we know that strict legislation or bans with no or poor law enforcement can provoke an increase in the illegal trade (Conrad, 2012;MacMillan & Han, 2011). We speculate that there is a potential risk that species previously legally available in Russia will be illegally traded in the future. Since it appears to be more challenging to recruit participants for illegal behaviour related research, we decided to use the period between first legislation introduction and its coming into full force to engage the exotic pet owners in Russia for this study. Data collected and analysed during this study provide example responses from a range of exotic pet owners in Russia, explain their main reasons for acquiring exotic pets and describe pet-keeping practices and pet-owner relations. This paper also covers the role the pet owners' community play in the live wildlife trade and pet owners' attitude towards legislation focusing on regulating the exotic pet trade in Russia.

| Study location
The research was conducted in three different locations in order to include a range of pet owners that might have different views on exotic pet ownership due to their place of residence. Selected cities were Moscow, located in Central federal district, Saint Petersburg, located in Northern federal district and Krasnodar, located in Southern federal district of Russia.
All interviewed participants reside in one of these cities or in close proximity (e.g. suburban areas or satellite towns). The only exception is one participant from Samara located in Volga federal district of Russia, who agreed to participate in the research during her temporary stay in Krasnodar. Since this participant made an important contribution to our research by sharing her experience of exotic pet ownership, we decided to include her responses in data analysis. Time and financial restrictions prevented us from including other districts of Russia in our study design.

| Participants
In total we interviewed 27 participants between 13th May and 4th July 2019 as follows: 14 in Moscow, 8 in Saint Petersburg and 5 in Krasnodar. Unequal number of participants in each city was unintentional and caused by the voluntary participation requirement. We tried to engage exotic pet owners of both sexes and all ages-16/27 were females and ages ranged from 18 to 60, with the majority in their 30s and 40s.
We used a snowball sampling technique to recruit research participants with the first interviewees found through social media-Instagram and VK (a Russian online social media platform with over 589 millions registered users; VK, 2020), using relevant hashtags in Russian language (e.g. #unusualpet, #pettiger, #monkeyathome) and searching through open access groups for the members with profile photos featuring exotic pets. All prospective participants received a recruitment message inviting anonymous participation in an MSc student's research on motivation for the keeping of exotic pets. The communication emphasized the necessity of interviewing pet owners for data veracity. In addition, one of the participants invited the researcher to use a private chat group on VK to invite interested participants to get in touch via private message (to ensure anonymity).
This group chat included over 200 exotic pet owners and therefore served as a valuable recruitment tool. All participants were informed about voluntary participation in the study and the anonymity of the collected data, and gave their consent to use their responses for the study and further publication. The consents were given in written or oral form (based on interviewees' preferences) and were collected prior to the start of the data collection to comply with the research ethics. An ethical approval for anonymous data collection, including use of audio recording, was obtained from the School of Anthropology and Conservation Ethics Committee at the University of Kent.

| Data collection and analysis
While considering the most appropriate methods for this study, we assumed that pet owners would have a certain degree of loyalty and attachment to their pets, and that also some of the animals may have been acquired illegally. Therefore, we chose to consider exotic pet ownership as a sensitive research topic that required us to build trust through a more qualitative approach for the interview with recruitment undertaken via 'snowballing' which is also trust en- All data were collected in Russian language, the native language of both the researcher and all the participants. All interviews with the exception of one were conducted in person in a location chosen by participants to provide a comfortable environment, establish trust and to enable more relevant data collection (one interview was conducted online as a participant was temporarily outside the study location). Some of the research participants chose a public space and brought their pets, which sparked a certain degree of public attention. Interview length varied from 25 min to 2 hr 20 min with the majority of short interviews being conducted in Moscow and the longest being conducted in Krasnodar.
The interviews all commenced with some general questions to engage and relax each participant, with additional questions asked depending on interviewees' responses and conversational flow (Appendix S1). Each interview was analysed after completion, so that new emerged topics could be covered with the participants that followed. The initial study design and pre-prepared questions focussed purely on the motivations for exotic pet ownership. Hence, the themes covered during the first few interviews were mainly addressing history and acquisition of the pet, and pet-owner relationships. However, after a few interviews we noticed the importance of interconnection between motivations for the acquisition of pets and several other topics including, but not limited to, the exotic pet owners community and its influence on owners' behaviours.
Each interviewee was assigned a code with a letter based on the participant's gender, following by a letter representing main taxa of their pets (bird, mammal or reptile), followed by a number reflecting the order in which the person was interviewed. For instance, a female owner of two tiger cubs Panthera tigris interviewed after eight other participants has FM9 code. All interviews with one exception were audio recorded with the participants' permission. However, the primary analysis was conducted based on the notes taken during the interview and memos written by the interviewer after completion of the interview. We found that this approach was more efficient in identifying main emerging themes and pattern, including pet owners' motivations, while audio recordings were used to support findings with the participants' quotes. To create our motivation typology we used answers to two primary questions: 'What is the story of your pet(s)?' and 'What influenced your decision to acquire your pet(s)?'.

| RE SULTS AND D ISCUSS I ON
With few exceptions, all the interviewees previously had a dog or cat as a companion animal and the majority of participants were seeking similar relationships with their exotic pets. However, we decided to not group them together into companion seekers type, but instead focus on other factors and motivations that led to the acquiring of exotic pets. We therefore grouped all interviewees into four categories as follows: life-savers (5), accidental owners (3), new experience seekers (9) and collectors (10). Three participants were initially classified under more than one different ownership types (e.g. life-saver and new experience seeker) and for these participants, responses to additional questions were used to better understand their motivations and to assign an appropriate category (Table 1). Although groups were not equal in terms of number of research participants, they were equally important, often interconnected with each other and their representatives had potential to morph into another ownership category. Together all four groups formed the exotic pet owners community, informing and influencing each other's acquiring and keeping practices.

| Life-savers
Pet owners who acquired their pets due to strong feeling of pity towards a particular individual animal can be categorized as life-savers.
The majority of the participants classified under this ownership type felt a strong emotional connection with their animals and were convinced that their animals have a better life because they are kept as pets. Among interviewees, the stories of the 'saved' animals varied greatly. Some animals such as red foxes Vulpes vulpes and western polecats Mustela putorius were rescued or purchased from fur farms, others such as a grey wolf Canis lupus cub were saved from euthanasia or had been abandoned. [Correction added on 20 July 2020 after first publication online: Table 2 citation deleted and Table 2 moved to section 3.3].
In addition, life-savers were also individuals who rescued and kept injured native species because they could not be released to the wild or the owners had become too attached to them. The majority of the interviewed life-savers considered themselves as more experienced in looking after pets than other owners and often provided advice to others. For example, the owner of several unwanted meerkats Suricata suricata created a dedicated group on social media to help others.
Some life savers used their rescue experience to become advocates against keeping wildlife or at least particular species or taxa as pets. For example, some of the research participants who brought their pets to a public place for interview intentionally discouraged anyone who approached about the problems of exotic pets citing high upkeep costs and their troublesome nature: 'Can you see my arms? Yes, these marks are from it' (participant FM14, owner of a northern racoon). Several life-savers were keen to emphasize the altruistic nature of their motivation and contrasted this with other more selfish motives, admitting that many kept animals 'purely for self-esteem and not for the benefit of the animals' or as 'a toy for professionals' (MM15, owner of a northern racoon).

| Accidental owners
Accidental owners received an animal as an unsolicited gift or had to adopt following a change in circumstances of the previous owner develop an interest in getting more exotic pets. In some cases they might morph into another ownership type such as new experience seeker or even collector. On the other hand, some were actually strong advocates against exotic pet ownership. The owner of a chinchilla Chinchilla stated that her next pet would be a dog due to concerns about tactile contact, hygiene and level of responsibility with the chinchilla. The owner of a green iguana Iguana iguana mentioned that he believes that iguanas should not be kept in a flat and he would never buy it as pet, but since he received it as a gift, he had to take care of it.
The practice of offering exotic pets as gifts was viewed by participants in both a negative and positive light. Some were convinced that such gifts could develop an interest in the natural world, especially if given to children, while others mentioned that surprise gifts were probably unwise as the new owner may not have sufficient knowledge or time to be a responsible owner. The gift of an exotic pet was most common amongst family members, friends, colleagues and somehow defined by the personal sympathy to the gift recipient as opposed to a work-related (career advancing) gift.

| New experience seekers
The majority of interviewees had a companion animal such as dog or cat before acquiring an exotic pet. New experience seekers were looking for 'something different'-a new or less common experience. As is the case with accidental owners who got their exotic pets by chance, new experience seekers are relatively new to exotic pet ownership and the community. Choice of pet species was influenced by the common knowledge of the species, features in friends' or celebrities' social media, movies and documentaries and the species' availability.
Purchase of a particular species can also be stimulated by seeing and interacting with the pet of a friend, colleague or relative, or in a petting zoo (

| Collectors
Collectors are people who acquire animals due to their specific characteristics. Such characteristics may include colour or any other particular visual features, temper, complexity of the husbandry and its provenance. animals mostly through observation of the animals' behaviours and husbandry. Some participants mentioned that the work involved in large collections, such as the cleaning of terrariums and feeding required large amounts of time and could lead to spending more time at home and less social interaction with humans. On the other hand size of collection was in part determined by the animals' welfarean interviewed collector of primates mentioned that it was easier or better for the animal if they were kept in groups to facilitate social interaction.
Snake owners in particular, had strong preferences for specific colour mutations but more generally appearance did not seem to play a major role in the choice of species to collect, with most attention paid to temperament and husbandry requirements. The goal of many collectors is to be able to raise and breed good specimens of the spe- Collectors also linked exotic pet ownership with conservation.
For example, some interviewees mentioned that with current rates of habitat destruction and degradation and illegal poaching, the keeping of animals as pets would help to preserve biodiversity.
However, it is unclear if collectors were engaged in conservationrelated practices such as animal exchange to avoid inbreeding and support genetic diversity. Moreover, none of the participants mentioned participating in any reintroduction efforts.
Some collectors saw their goal in promoting exotic pet ownership practice, inspiring more people to acquire exotic pets, educating potential and current owners about the correct husbandry.

Compared to other pet owners, collectors had the most established
view on the way animals should be kept and cared for and were more vocal and active on social media platforms to share their knowledge and comment on others' practice. Observed online communities were open to the exotic pet owners with different level of experience and collectors actively used these platforms to engage and to interact with others who shared their passions for exotic pets.

| Exotic pet owners community
The relationship between owner and pet can be multifaceted. New experience seekers were the most active in expressing how much they are emotionally attached to their animals, often considering them to be family members, and mentioning their importance in terms of tactile contact. Life-savers tended to pay more attention to the animal's needs rather than to the interaction with the animal, nevertheless, they also show a high level of attachment to the pet and protectiveness of their animal. Collectors were least emotional when talking about their pets, but many still referred to each of their animals by a name.
It was also the case, certainly among some participants, that owners could have multiple motivations and morph into a different type of owner through an evolutionary, experiential process.
One owner morphed into a 'collector' because of her previous experiences as both a 'new experience seeker' and then a 'life-saver'.

This participant nurtured her interest for animals since childhood
and started to acquire other species out of interest, slowly building a collection of reptiles. She also adopted an unwanted west-

| Exotic pet ownership and legislation
The majority of participants agreed about the need to introduce new legislation to regulate the exotic pet sector in Russia. However, the interviewees believed that the legislation proposed by the Russian government would have no effect, or perhaps even a negative effect, on the current situation and could exacerbate illegal trafficking.
Understanding and awareness varied across owners and this could lead to different behaviours (Table 3)  an opportunity for using exotic animals as an income source (e.g. photo props) and it is unlikely to change with the new legislation introduction.

Potential outcomes caused by the introduction of the legislation
Life-savers • Concern that the legislation will restrict the ability to save animals • Concern that rescued animals will not be allowed to be kept as pets

Collectors
• Low level of concern about the legislation introduction • Believe that legislation will not be enforced OR • it will increase illegal trade • Continuing all activities regardless the legislation TA B L E 3 Four types of pet owners, their attitudes towards new legislation and possible outcomes from its introduction the best solution would be to encourage life-savers to volunteer with existing rescue centres where they can express their compassion and caring nature (Yeung, White, & Chilvers, 2017), demonstrate their prosocial behaviour (Booth & Curtis, 2014;Thoits & Hewitt, 2001), while also providing higher levels of care for the animals in need. Accidental owners could be recruited as advocates against exotic pet ownership, telling stories that portray their pets as victims and explaining how challenging it is to look after them.
With no extensive prior experience of keeping exotic pets, new experience seekers often choose their animals based on appealing features, which they identified from other pet owners, social media, entertainment or observed in real life. Providing more information about the endangered conservation status of popular exotic pet species, together with promoting other less threatened or easier to breed species, it could be possible to shift the demand from one species to another. This strategy might be more appropriate in countries where a flourishing market exists due to loopholes in legislation or poor law enforcement. However, such approach should be planned and implemented cautiously, as providing information on species' conservation status and risk of extinction can also spark a demand for the endangered species due to their rarity (Courchamp et al., 2006;Hall, Milner-Gulland, & Courchamp, 2008;Lyons & Natusch, 2013).

The lack and limitations of available information was constantly
repeated across all four groups of owners. Some of the owners claimed that with more awareness about the illegality of purchasing particular species, husbandry challenges, lack of veterinary support and the further expenses, they would not purchase exotic pet or at least choose another species. This supports the findings of the research by Moorhouse, Balaskas, D'Cruze, and Macdonald (2017) showing that the demand for exotic pets can be considerably reduced by providing additional information to consumers. Sharing the information on the provenance of animals can help potential owners to make an informed decision when choosing a potential pet. Our research found that many owners have no or limited knowledge of their pet provenance, and greater transparency of the supply chain would benefit both conservationists and consumers if captive-breeding facilities with high welfare standards are available.
Consequently, it will help to avoid unsustainable harvesting from the wild, high mortality rate during transportation and minimize illegal trade of exotic pets.
Collectors are probably the hardest group to reach. As determined collectors with a thirst for acquiring new specimens and associated husbandry skills and knowledge sets they are sometimes, possibly inevitably drawn to species that are more rare and challenging in terms of husbandry and with lower survival chances. Seen in this way, collectors may seem like a direct threat to certain species on the edge of extinction. Although collectors often declare that they source their pets from legitimate breeders, it is possible that those breeders acquire animals from the wild and sell them as captive-bred individuals or to use for breeding. It will therefore be important to engage collectors in further research to explore potential ways to mitigate risks and enhance opportunities for conservation through greater regulation or transparency of sourcing information through for example, certification.
We divided all interviewees into four types, but it is important to underline once again that there is a very strong interconnection between these groups: they influence each other and are influenced by other stakeholders. Some participants mentioned that they nurtured their love for the animals by visiting zoos. Overall, interviewees had a positive attitude towards zoos, but were against petting zoos or at least mentioned that such establishments should be assessed case by case. All groups mentioned interactions with zoos with regard to their pets. Occasionally, Russian zoos played a role as a supplier of the animals (e.g. illegally selling or giving out newborn animals otherwise destined for euthanasia) with some zoos also providing veterinary care and advice for the pet owners. Hence, the role of zoos in the exotic pet trade and its influence on the demand should be recognized and managed to support a more responsible approach to exotic pet ownership, and not as an inspiration for pet acquisition (Bulbeck, 2004;Kieswetter, 2019;Whitehouse-Tedd, Spooner, & Whitehouse-Tedd, 2020). Similarly, the role of petting and travelling zoos in Russia, as well as circuses requires additional research attention.

| Further research
Our research highlights several issues that merit further investigation. First, we need to establish the importance of exotic pets as sources of additional income for example as photo props. More quantification would be welcome in certain key areas.
First, it would be useful to know the total number in each ownership type in order to understand the scale of the issue. Second, it would be interesting to conduct a survey to know which species and their preponderance in the pet community, are of con-

| Concluding remarks
Although participants have various views on the new legislation, many of them agreed that some sort of legislation is necessary in order to avoid cruelty and poor animal welfare conditions. Our findings show that misconceptions around the new legislation may provoke pet owners to not register, but instead hide their animals.
Consequently, these owners may have more difficulties in receiving veterinary help in future and the legislation, though well intentioned may serve only to drive the trade underground and be captured by We used a snowballing sampling technique to recruit participants voluntarily and it is possible that our results are biased towards participants with higher animal welfare standards. We assume that the less caring owners as well as those more closely linked to the illegal acquisition of pets would be less likely agree to participate in the research. Most notably, we were not able to engage the largest collectors, as they did not reply to our invitation. However, many individual owners mentioned the same collectors' names during their interview and it would be highly desirable to find a way to reach out to this group as they are key influencers.

ACK N OWLED G EM ENTS
We thank the School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent for funding this study. We also thank Jennifer Gooden from the University of Oxford for her advice on how to conduct interviews for our study, the reviewers and editorial team of People and Nature journal for their valuable comments on how to communicate our research.

CO N FLI C T O F I NTE R E S T
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

AUTH O R S ' CO NTR I B UTI O N S
S.S. and D.C.M. conceived the ideas and designed methodology; S.S. collected and analysed the data. Both authors contributed to the drafting and writing of the manuscript and gave final approval for publication.

DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
Due to the sensitivity of research topic and the type of data collected it is not possible to make the audio recording of the conducted interviews publicly available. We guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality to our interviewees in compliance with the ethics approval granted by the School of Anthropology and Conservation Ethics Committee at the University of Kent.