The ornamental trade in painted woolly bats (Kerivoula picta) in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The ornamental wildlife trade poses a potential conservation threat to bats, including the painted woolly bat, Kerivoula picta. While studies have documented the fact that K. picta is widely sold online, with specimens moving from Asia to markets all over the world, there is no literature on the K. picta trade in any of its 11 range countries. We surveyed shops in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam to record all bats in ornamental trade, interviewed vendors to gain insight into the supply chain and performed a comprehensive legislative review to assess this trade's legality. Our surveys revealed that Kerivoula picta is the most popular bat species in an ornamental trade that largely caters to tourists in HCMC. Adults and dependent young seem to be mostly, if not, entirely sourced from the wild in Vietnam. Two independent lines of anecdotal evidence indicate that K. picta has recently become increasingly difficult to find in the wild near HCMC and elsewhere in the Mekong Delta, leading to concern that this bat may have been overharvested for ornamental trade. With a potentially large population decline and K. picta not explicitly protected by Vietnam's wildlife-protection laws, we recommend including it on lists of endangered, precious and rare species in the updated regulation(s). We also suggest Vietnam act to add K. picta to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which would set restrictions on transboundary movements of painted woolly bats.