19-06-2025
Wild cargo: Inside the Solomon Islands' exotic pet industry
Samson Michael has been collecting reptiles for most of his life. In his Tennessee home, an entire room is dedicated to them - a private menagerie filled with snakes, lizards and skinks.
Among them are monkey-tailed skinks from Solomon Islands.
But how did these animals, found in the forest of remote Pacific islands, end up in a glass tank in America's south?
Solomon Islands is the Pacific region's largest legal commercial exporter of wildlife for the exotic pet trade - a little-known but thriving industry that supports a vast network of trappers, village buyers and exporters across the country.
Join journalist Prianka Srinivasan as she investigates the controversial supply chain that takes animals from a jungle in Santa Isabel to end up in an American lounge room.
Presenter: Prianka Srinivasan
*Reporting was supported by the Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism through the Walkley Public Fund.
