Researchers monitored social media activity over six weeks in mid-2025 and found more than 1,600 live primates advertised for sale across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Listings were often discoverable through search terms such as monkey rehoming or adoption, despite platform restrictions on wildlife sales. Sellers frequently disguised commercial transactions as rescue or rehoming efforts to keep listings visible and avoid detection. The study recorded 1,131 posts from 122 users advertising 1,614 primates. Twelve primate taxa were identified, with macaques, marmosets, and capuchins most common. Prices ranged from $250 to $6,500, and many advertised animals were infants and juveniles, which are often taken from mothers in the wild. Many animals experience severe trauma or die during smuggling before reaching buyers.
"Researchers monitored activity over a six-week period in mid-2025 and identified more than 1,600 primates listed for sale on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Many listings were easily found through searches using terms such as monkey rehoming or adoption, despite platform restrictions on wildlife sales. Sellers frequently disguised commercial transactions as rescue or rehoming efforts, allowing listings to remain publicly visible while avoiding detection, according to the report."
"The study documented 1,131 online posts from 122 social media users advertising 1,614 live primates for sale. Twelve primate taxa were identified, including macaques, capuchins, marmosets, spider monkeys, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, vervets, lemurs, bush babies, chimpanzees, howler monkeys and owl monkeys. Macaques accounted for the largest number of listings, with 839 individuals identified, followed by marmosets at 293 and capuchins at 275."
"Prices ranged from $250 to $6,500 depending on species, age and rarity. Researchers said many of the animals advertised online were infants and juveniles. The report notes that infant primates are often taken from their mothers in the wild because buyers are led to believe younger animals will bond more easily with humans."
"Many animals suffer severe trauma or die during smuggling operations before reaching buyers. About 60% of the world's primate species are threatened with extinction, and roughly 75% have declining populations largely from habitat loss driven by"
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