Venomous snakes and spiders, lizards and turtles, rare cactuses - it is a list of species most people would expect to find in a zoo. Yet, increasingly, China's customs officers are finding them hidden in suitcases and mail order packages.

In the first seven months of this year, officials at exit-entry points nationwide confiscated more than 240,000 batches of wild species concealed to avoid quarantine.

They included flesh-eating piranhas from Brazil, a deathstalker scorpion from Israel - both intended as pets, authorities said - as well as African snails, which are seen as a delicacy but are already causing ecological problems in Southeast China.