| Summary: | The global legal wildlife trade is worth US$4-20 billion to the world's economy every year. Raptors frequently enter the wildlife trade for use as display animals, by falconers or hobbyists for sport and recreation. Using data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora's (CITES) Trade Database, we examined trends in the global, legal commercial trade of CITES-listed raptors between 1975-2020. Overall 272 raptor species were traded, totalling 188,149 individuals, with the number of traded raptors increasing over time. Hybrid Falcons (N = 50,366) were most commonly traded, comprising more than a third of the global diurnal CITES-listed raptor trade, followed by Gyrfalcons ( Falco rusticolus N = 30,510), Saker Falcons ( F. cherrug N = 21,679), Peregrine Falcons ( F. peregrinus N = 13,390) and Northern White-faced Owls ( Ptilopsis leucotis N = 6,725). More than half of wild-caught diurnal raptors were classified as globally threatened. The United Kingdom was the largest exporter of live raptors and the United Arab Emirates was the largest importer. More affluent countries were likely to import more raptors than those less affluent. Larger-bodied diurnal species were traded more relative to their smaller-bodied conspecifics. Following the introduction of the European Union's Wild Bird Trade Ban in 2005, the number of traded wild-caught raptors declined. Despite its limitations, the CITES Trade Database provides an important baseline of the legal trade of live raptors for commercial purposes. However, better understanding of illegal wildlife trade networks and smuggling routes, both on-the-ground and online, are essential for future conservation efforts. Trade data for all CITES-listed raptor species were downloaded from the open-access CITES Trade Database ( https://trade.cites.org/ ) on 21st November 2021, using a compiled Comparative Tabulation Table from UNEP/WCMC. The following search terms were used to filter the CITES trade data: "Year Range" was set to ...
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