Around the world, you’ll find wildlife and plant products for sale—as jewelry, clothes, pets, souvenirs and more. But just because something is for sale doesn’t mean it’s legal to take home. Some of these products may be made from protected animals or plants and could be illegal to export or import. Other wildlife products may require permits before you can bring them home to the United States.
By making informed choices, you can avoid having your souvenir confiscated or paying a fine, and more importantly, support wildlife conservation around the world. Here's how you can make a difference:
Top 5 Products to Never Buy
- Ivory: raw or carved: Avoid raw or carved ivory from the teeth or tusks of elephants, whales, walruses, and narwhals. Don't purchase ivory carved into jewelry, carvings, figurines, chopsticks, or hair clips.
- Tiger Products: Avoid products from tigers used in traditional medicine, sold as furs, or as souvenirs or “good luck” charms.
- Rhino Products: Avoid products from rhinos used in traditional medicine, jewelry, or souvenirs.
- All Sea Turtle Products: Avoid jewelry, hair combs and sunglass frames made from sea turtle shell. Don't buy sea turtle meat, soup, eggs, facial creams, shells, leathers, boots, handbags, and other goods made from sea turtle skin.
- Medicinals: Avoid traditional medicines made from rhino, tiger, leopard, Asiatic black bear, or musk deer.
Top 5 Products to Avoid or Question
- Reptile Leather Products: Many garments including belts, handbags, watchbands, and shoes are made from non-endangered species and are ok to purchase. However, certain leather products may contain caiman, crocodiles, lizards and snakes. Check that your product has a CITES permit before purchasing.
- Coral and Shells: Many countries limit the collection, sale, and export of live coral and coral products. If you want to purchase coral as a souvenir, jewelry, or aquarium decoration, find out if you need a CITES permit to bring it back to the U.S. Permits may also be required to bring back queen conch shells from many Caribbean countries.
- Wild Bird Feathers: Most wild bird feathers require permits, including from parrots, macaws, cockatoos and finches.
- Furs: Beware when purchasing furs while traveling abroad. Most of the world’s wild cats are protected and you can't import skins or items made using the fur of these protected animals.
- Wools: Shahtoosh shawls are woven with the down hair of the protected Tibetan antelope. However, travelers may import clothing made from vicuna (a South American mammal) with a permit from the country of purchase.
Ask Before You Buy
- What is this product made of?
- Where did this product come from?
And if traveling outside of the U.S.:
- Does the country I’m visiting allow the sale and export of this product?
- Do I need permits or other documents from this country or the United States to bring this item home?
Information sourced from the Wildlife Trafficking Alliance
