LAUSR

With the rise in popularity and accessibility of the internet, a growing number of people are selling goods online. Classified advertisement websites such as eBay, Gumtree and Craigslist allow users to sell goods or services directly to consumers, bypassing the need for an intermediary. The convenience, anonymity and widespread reach of these websites has led to an increase in legal and illegal wildlife being traded online (IFAW 2014; Lavorgna 2014, 2015). Sellers advertise illegal wildlife openly as there is little need to resort to darkweb sites (Harrison et al. 2016). Recent reports indicate that the trade of prohibited animals online is flourishing, and is a cause of conservation concern for a broad range of species (IFAW 2014; Hinsley et al. 2016; Morgan and Chng 2017). The Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) is considered Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and was upgraded to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I in January 2017, with offtake for the illegal pet trade noted as one of the significant factors contributing to their decline in the wild (Anon 2016). Once present throughout North Africa, the range of this species is now limited to Algeria, Morocco, and a small, introduced population in Gibraltar (Taub 1984). Legislation in both Morocco and Algeria prohibits the trade in Barbary macaques, with potential fines of up to USD10,000 per animal in Morocco and USD1,000 in Algeria. There is evidence that the species has been traded since at least the early Iron Age (Massetti and Bruner 2009) and previous studies