Porcupines are hunted for the trade in bezoars, conglomerates of undigested material that boast miraculous therapeutic properties
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himA new study has shed some light on the poaching of porcupines, killed by the tens of thousands for the contents of their stomach, considered miraculous for the cure of various diseases.
Porcupines have a very varied diet that can also include bark or parts of vegetables that are not digested.
The small bits of undigested organic material form a hard mass known as bezoario, the famous bezoar from Harry Potter.
The phenomenon occurs in many animals, including goats and porcupines, and this sort of "stone" does not seem to cause inconvenience or annoyance to animals, until they meet humans.
Bezoars have in fact been considered a panacea for centuries, capable of curing fever, diabetes and even cancer. Obviously there is no scientific evidence to support the therapeutic activity of these undigested masses, but this does not stop the illegal trade in bezoars, which is constantly increasing.
Recent research published in Global Ecology and Conservation evaluated, for the first time, the online trade in bezoars obtained from porcupines from Asia and Africa.
Analyzing e-commerce in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore for four months in 2019, researchers found 443 bezoars for sale, the selling price of which can be as high as $ 150 per gram - more than double that of gold.
In addition to whole bezoars, there are also many powdered products on sale: by calculating the weight of these products, the researchers estimated that between 680 and 1300 bezoars were used to obtain them.
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Since these masses form only occasionally in the porcupines, in order to be able to accumulate such a large amount of bezoars, the animals could be killed tens of thousands.
The number is underestimated, because researchers haven't had the opportunity to scan all the sites every day, so they may have discovered only a fraction of the trade in these products.
The researchers stressed the need to take action a protection of porcupines. These animals are already threatened by the destruction of their habitats and poaching risks leading them to extinction.
Currently, the IUCN Red List includes only the Philippine porcupine (Hystrix pumila) among vulnerable porcupines and no species are protected by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species.
However, this new study has shed light on a unsustainable trade that proceeds at alarming rates and that could lead to the extinction of the porcupine in a short time in the absence of conservation interventions.
Although some porcupines are bred for the purpose, the majority of commercial benzoars come from wild porcupines as the undigested masses of animals living in pristine locations are believed to be purer, more effective, and more valuable.
It is a pity that no value is given to live porcupines, as important as all living beings for the maintenance of ecosystems.
Reference source: Science Direct / IUCN
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