The unsustainable use of wildlife increases the risk of species extinction. In biodiversity-rich Indonesia, information on the scale of wildlife use is limited and requires further study. To address this, we explored the potential of text messaging (short message service; SMS) surveys to investigate levels and spatial patterns of domestic wildlife use, using songbird keeping and shark consumption as case studies because of their widespread occurrence in all 34 Indonesian provinces. We sent 340,000 messages for each survey during October–November 2018 and incentivized responses with a mobile data package as reward. We obtained survey response rates of 1.4% (songbird ownership) and 1.5% (shark consumption). Our results revealed an estimated 175.7 million songbirds being kept by 35% (80.4–86.6 million) of the Indonesian population and 33.5 million people (14% of the Indonesian population) to have consumed shark products in their lifetime. We identified hotspots of songbird ownership in several provinces in Java, corroborating previous findings, and new ones in the North Sumatra province, for example. The provinces of Maluku, Aceh and East Nusa Tenggara had the highest numbers of reported shark consumers per 1,000 people. Responses indicated a wide variety of shark products being consumed, highlighting the need for in-depth research to understand the explanatory factors behind these practices. These findings demonstrate the potential of SMS surveys to be a cost-effective approach for conducting large-scale studies on wildlife consumption patterns over a short period of time.

Parasites exposed to fast-developing hosts experience a variety of conditions over a short time period. Only few studies in vertebrate-ectoparasite systems have integrated the timing of ectoparasite infestations in the host's development into the search for factors explaining ectoparasite burden. In this study we examined the temporal pattern of attachment in a nidicolous tick (Ixodes arboricola) throughout the development of a songbird (Parus major). In the first experiment, we exposed bird clutches at hatching to a mix of the 3 tick instars (larvae, nymphs and adults), and monitored the ticks that attached in relation to the average broods' age. In a complementary experiment we focused on the attachment in adult female ticks – the largest and most significant instar for the species' reproduction – after releasing them at different moments in the nestlings’ development. Our observations revealed a positive association between the size of the attached instar and the broods' age. Particularly, adult females were less likely to be found attached to recently hatched nestlings, which contrasts with the smaller-sized larvae and nymphs. These differences suggest either an infestation strategy that is adapted to host physiology and development, or a result of selection by the hosts' anti-tick resistance mechanisms. We discuss the implications of our results in terms of tick life-history strategies.