鈥淚T鈥橲 not about us,鈥� Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill) says to his fellow crusaders in one of the culminating scenes of Jurassic World Dominion, as they escape a research centre in ruins, terrorised by a Giganotosaurus that is about to have a showdown with a Therizinosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex. Fitting words for the final chapter in a movie franchise that, for three decades, has tried its best to send an environmentally conscious message through a Hollywood blockbuster lens.
In the series鈥� finale, director and co-screenwriter Colin Trevorrow filters the corruption of big pharma and biotech conglomerates through one evil overlord, who goes to great lengths to capture a baby dinosaur for his 鈥渟anctuary鈥� in Italy鈥檚 Dolomite mountains, exposing an underground of black market dinosaur trading.
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Although the illegal hunting and trading of prehistoric creatures is fictional, this storyline rings alarmingly true for their direct descendants: birds. According to a , 25 million birds were illegally killed in the Mediterranean region in 2014, with Italy accounting for 5.6 million of them 鈥� the most of any of the European Union鈥檚 Mediterranean member states.
Illegal trapping of birds, particularly songbirds, also , including Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, before they are exported to northern Italy to be used as either food or pets.
Elsewhere, the African grey parrot has become , due to its desirability as a pet. One population has decreased by since the 1990s, yet demand continues to increase.
At the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, some countries, including and , put a wildlife trade ban in place in an attempt to curb the coronavirus, temporarily slowing down the estimated . But further sanctions are desperately needed in those countries most accountable for illegal activity.
WWF Italy that the country is a key crossroads for the trafficking of protected species and wildlife crimes in general. Although Italy launched a , it has no centralised database on crimes against nature, nor monitoring of any kind.
In 2021, however, the Italian government did place a ban on the importation of exotic animals (parrots, armadillos and other creatures) in an effort to prevent future breakouts of deadly diseases. Italy has also introduced a ban on fur farming and .
And on the ground, volunteers from the (LIPU) have been monitoring hunting areas and bird fairs, reporting and seizing a variety of species, including songbirds and turtle doves, as well as helping birds suffering from gunshot wounds.
Whether or not Trevorrow was aware of the problems facing wildlife globally as he made Jurassic World Dominion, he has alluded to its genetically cloned animals experiencing the same struggles as those in the real world. 鈥淲e have animals in zoos,鈥� he . 鈥淲e weaponize them. We put them in our homes as pets. We sell them in markets. So all of these different realities are in this film.鈥�
It is tough to calibrate whether Jurassic Park Dominion鈥榮 highlighting of black market animal trading has trickled down to the public, but worldwide box office sales neared $400 million during its first week. It is still a profit game for humanity, but let鈥檚 hope those sales help raise public awareness of a very real issue.
Raj Tawney writes about humanity鈥檚 impact on the natural world.
