How can poaching and illegal wildlife trade reduce a species’ genetic diversity?

Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade reduce a species' genetic diversity primarily by causing drastic declines in population size, a phenomenon known as a population bottleneck.12

When human activities significantly reduce the number of individuals in a population, the remaining group often fails to represent the full range of genetic variation present in the original, larger population. This leads to several critical ecological consequences:2

• Random Genetic Drift: In small populations, the frequency of alleles can change rapidly due to chance alone, a process called genetic drift. By random sampling error, certain genetic traits may be lost entirely, leaving the population with less variation.23
• Increased Vulnerability: Genetic diversity is essential for a species to adapt to environmental changes, such as new diseases, predators, or shifts in climate. When poaching strips away this variation, the remaining population becomes more susceptible to these environmental dangers, further increasing the risk of extinction.13

Preserving genetic diversity is a fundamental ethical and scientific priority, as it provides the biological foundation necessary for species to survive and evolve in a changing world.3