There is a bustling world wide market for exotic pets. Every kind of unusual creature from bizarre kinds of turtles all the way up to bald eagles are up for sale, if you have the right kind of connection. But there are two big reasons why buying an exotic pet is a bad idea. For one thing, they are almost always endangered species, which means that you might end up getting one of the last of the entire race. The other reason why you should never buy an exotic pet is because the people who capture and deal with such animals are almost always of the shady sort, and they are almost never professional animal handlers. This also contributes to an extremely high mortality rate for the creatures that are roped into the worldwide animal black market.
There is a reason why it is generally illegal to own endangered species. There are only so many of them left, and most people do not have the type of training that it would take to keep them alive and healthy. Consider how rare it is for many wild animals to breed in captivity, even when they are being kept by licensed professionals in high quality enclosures. If you try to keep such an animal, its life span will likely fall down to half of what it would normally be, no offense intended. No matter how good your intentions might be, the effect will most likely end up tragically.
For anothe thing, you need to consider the kinds of conditions exotic pets are typically kept in. Often they are not fed the appropriate types of food, and they are also often stored in cramped conditions along with other types of animals that may be sick in all sorts of ways. And beyond that, most of the animal smuggling crowd does not especially care for the critters- only for the dollar signs that those critters represent. Don’t buy them.