In a nondescript office building in central Bangkok, customers pay 400 baht (£9.40) for a 30-minute session petting three capybaras, the world's largest rodent, alongside meerkats and Chinese bamboo rats. The cafe, open 12 hours daily, is part of a growing trend across Asia where exotic animals are used as attractions.
The surge in capybara cafes is driven by the animal's internet fame, with over 600,000 TikTok posts featuring the semi-aquatic rodents. However, experts warn that this popularity is linked to a troubling rise in illegal wildlife trade. Timothy Bonebrake, a conservation biologist at the University of Hong Kong, notes that the diversity and number of threatened animals in such cafes is very concerning.
Capybaras are not classified as endangered, with an estimated 1.2 million in Brazil alone, but their international trade is unregulated by Cites. While exporting wild capybaras is illegal in many South American countries, experts say their movement to Asia often involves the illegal pet trade. Scott Roberton of the Wildlife Conservation Society highlights that legal and illegal supply chains often converge, with animals being laundered into legal breeding stocks.
Other species, such as small-clawed otters found in Japanese cafes, have been linked to poaching hotspots in Thailand, violating trade bans on vulnerable species. In response, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature adopted a motion at its October congress to curb the illegal pet trade. Sue Lieberman of WCS warns that the global pet trade is out of control from a conservation perspective.
