She keeps her eyes sharp for pickpockets as she works her way deeper into the noisy labyrinth of vendors. In a doorway, three young boys stare out with vacant eyes, inhaling deeply from glass jars filled with glue or gasoline. After a dozen dizzying turns past stalls crammed with fruit, meat, shoes and screws, Zuniga hears a sharp animal screech above the babble of buying and selling. And there they are, row after row of cages, walls of them, stacked in columns or hanging from rusty wires. Inside are flashes of green and scarlet and gold impossibly brilliant in the dingy shade of the high tin roof.
Recent research confirms the wild pet problem throughout the region.
Experts agree that poorer countries such as Nicaragua and Honduras have even higher levels of pet ownership, as does southern Mexico. But Nicaragua is leading the way in cracking down. After decades of relaxed attitudes toward selling endangered animals, the government promises that now it is the pet trade itself that is about to become extinct. Zuniga, a wildlife biologist working with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, is part of that new effort. She has spent hours in the Mercado Oriental, wheedling information from wary sellers.