WASHINGTON— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the earless monitor lizard as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act today following a 2022 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity. The listing would ban U.S. imports, exports and sales of earless monitors that are taken from the wild but would still allow trade in captive-bred species, despite significant illegal trade occurring.

“It’s encouraging that U.S. officials have taken a step toward safeguarding the earless monitor lizard, but these protections fall short of what these animals really need,” said Dianne DuBois, a staff scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “There’s no question that earless monitors are endangered, and they should be given the highest level of protection under the Endangered Species Act, including a strict ban on trade.”

Earless monitor lizards are endemic to the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia where they inhabit areas with clear, rocky streams in lowland rainforests. They are known for their dragon-like appearance, translucent eyelids and characteristic lack of an external ear opening. The lizards are extremely rare, with just five known subpopulations that are believed to be small and declining.

Today’s proposed rule would ban imports of wild-caught earless monitor lizards to the United States but would continue to allow imports and sales of captive-bred specimens. Indonesia is the primary source country for the animals and allows export of captive-bred specimens. But the Service’s proposal acknowledges that “wildlife conservation laws in Indonesia are rarely enforced,” and researchers have long-documented illegal trade and laundering of wild-caught specimens labeled as captive-bred within the Indonesian reptile industry.

The pet trade is a primary threat for these lizards, and collection from the wild for illegal trade has contributed to the species’ decline. The lizards are in high demand by reptile keepers in the United States, who sometimes call them the “Holy Grail.” The animals have been actively traded in the United States for several years despite its range countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei having banned wild-caught exports of the species for four decades.

“Continuing to allow imports of earless monitor lizards from Indonesia almost certainly guarantees that the species will be collected from the wild and trafficked out of the country,” said DuBois. “Illegal traders have been getting around the law for decades, and anything short of a strict ban on trade allows that market to continue and pushes the lizard closer to extinction.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature assessed earless monitor lizards as endangered in 2021, concluding that they are facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

The pet trade has been connected to declines and local extinctions of numerous reptile species in the wild. More than 1,800 of the world’s reptile species are threatened with extinction.

The U.S. exotic pet trade is among the largest in the world, impacting hundreds of millions of animals each year. Reptiles are common in the global wildlife trade, with close to 4,000 species traded since 2000.