Good luck charms, evil eye removers and aphrodisiacs:here are the animals killed by superstition

The loss of animal species translates into damage not only for biodiversity but also for the human species

ROME - Where you go, tradition you find.Good luck charm, anti-evil eye, magical, pharmacological, aphrodisiac powers:There are many popular, ancient and modern beliefs on the alleged benefits brought by animal products or parts of them and spread throughout the world, including Italy.But the effects that these have on many wild species are unfortunately heavy, often bringing them to the brink of extinction. The alarm comes from WWF and CICAP (Italian Committee for the Control of Claims on Pseudoscience) in view of next March 3 - World Wildlife Day -, promoted internationally by the United Nations to celebrate the planet's wild fauna and flora and raise awareness of their fundamental role for our survival.For this occasion, by virtue of the recent collaboration started between the two associations, today a report entitled 'The bad luck is to make them extinct' created for GAS - Anti Superstition Day, which will take place on Friday 17 May.
The report, which takes up the dossier of the same title which will be published in 'Query', the CICAP quarterly magazine due out in April, describes the threats linked to traditions and superstitions, many of which are very ancient, sometimes even appearing in medieval bestiaries or Renaissance treatises on natural philosophy, and the global map of this phenomenon is presented.
The loss of animal species translates into damage not only for biodiversity but also for the human species given that many of them play a fundamental role in the balance of the habitats in which they live, in the regulation of the climate and in the production of food.

THE MAP OF SPECIES AT RISK 

Among the uses of species linked to ancient and modern superstitions and traditions, traditional oriental medicine comes first, especially in China but also in Vietnam, Japan and Thailand., which still supplies itself with animals or their parts such as the bile of moon bears, the bones, skins and other parts of the tiger, rhino horn (especially in Vietnam), the skin of the African wild ass, dried seahorse and/or reduced to powder.The tiger, despite some recent signs of recovery, such as in Bhutan and Russia, is still at risk of extinction and considered threatened by the IUCN Red List.The African wild ass has an estimated number of individuals potentially capable of reproducing between 20 and 200 and is considered in critical danger of extinction.A recent report has recorded a resurgence in black rhino poaching in some areas of South Africa since 2023, with around 500 animals killed, after a decline that lasted several decades.The species remained on the African continent with just over 5,000 specimens, and therefore considered in critical danger of extinction.
Traditional Chinese medicine uses around 12,000 different substances in its pharmacopoeia.Among these, 85% is of plant origin, 2% of mineral origin, while the remedies obtained from animals are around 13%.Although there have been several efforts in recent years by the Beijing authorities to stop the trafficking of the most endangered species (by removing the most threatened ones from the lists of marketable species, or by replacing some wild animals with farmed ones), this practice constitutes still a key factor in the extinction of many species.'Pharmacological' powers are also attributed to animals in some Italian regions:for example, wine mixed with eel blood is considered a remedy against drunkenness and alcoholism.The species is threatened by overfishing, pollution, climate change and is considered critically endangered.
Alleged aphrodisiac powers are absurdly attributed to whale meat in Japan, sea cucumber or sea cucumber.and, to the extract of the glands of the fly or musk deer (whose populations continue to decline making the species vulnerable for the IUCN), to the same seahorse or to the powder of deer antlers, to the nests of the Asiatic swift salangana up to the true and their own 'love filters' like those produced with the genitals of the hyena.In Ayurvedic medicine, the genitals of the monitor lizard are used, passed off as a medicinal plant, hatha jodi.In terms of symbolic meaning, the list is particularly imaginative even in Italy:emblematic is the case of the honey buzzard, decimated for decades in the Strait of Messina to 'protect men' from marital infidelity, and still threatened today, especially during migration.

'UNLUCKY' ANIMALS 

Owls and almost all nocturnal birds, like black cats, are considered ominous and even harbingers of death (as reported in the Hieroglyphica of the Renaissance writer Piero Valerio).Similar beliefs have been associated, in Europe, with nocturnal birds of prey such as the barn owl, the tawny owl, the owl and the small scops owl, as cited in the well-known poem by Giovanni Pascoli entitled to this animal.Recent studies have revealed similar beliefs too in Madagascar in the case of the aye-aye, a nocturnal primate (lemur) with a middle finger longer than the others which it uses to procure larvae and insects.In many areas of the African island its presence is seen as an omen of death or illness;some populations even believe that the aye-aye can kill whoever it wants simply by pointing the finger at the unfortunate person.If spotted, specific rites are celebrated in many villages to combat it, but too many believe that the only way to prevent the "curse" is to kill the aye-aye, displaying it on a pole along the roadside.The aye-aye has been included in the list of the 25 most threatened primate species.Researchers predict that by 2080 the area in which the species is present could shrink by more than 40% due to climate change.Even the opposite belief, that is, that the animal can attract good luck, can represent a serious danger for the species involved, which risk being hunted for the creation of amulets and talismans.Thus, for example, until the 19th century, ibexes were killed to extract the "heart cross", a cartilage that supports the heart muscle and to which magical properties were attributed.In Anglo-Saxon countries there is still a thriving trade in hare or rabbit paws, while in India traffickers in barn owls (which here, unlike Europe, are considered a lucky charm) and in lorises, a small nocturnal primate believed to bring good luck.

WIZARDS, SORCERERS AND... ANTI-SPIANCE 

Alongside these beliefs, magical ones persist.In India, for example, the belief in nagamani, a stone found in the heads of some snakes (particularly cobras), and from which a talisman is obtained capable of curing poisoning, warding off evil spirits, or changing color in the presence of a poison.“Snake stones” are also widespread in other cultures, and are sometimes made from bones from the skull or tail of the snake itself.In West Africa, however, gris-gris are widespread, talismans that attract good luck and protect their possessor from evil;they are generally made up of small cloth bags inside which there may be bones and teeth of animals (in particular monkeys, snakes and mice).
But the legends also concern more modern times such as the one widespread in many countries of Arab culture, according to which nations such as the United States and Israel use duly trained spy animals to keep their enemies under control.For this reason, some are killed or imprisoned, because they are considered "foreign agents".Birds often pay the price, such as the griffon vulture captured in Yemen in 2019 and detained in the country for a few months.In that case, it was the satellite receiver he had been equipped with for a monitoring project that incriminated him, but even common tags, the rings tied to the legs of birds to uniquely identify them, are often the subject of misunderstandings.

SHARKS:WE ARE THE PREDATORS

The sharks chapter deserves special attention:they are often considered dangerous for humans, while in reality the damage caused to these species demonstrates that we are the real predators. In addition to the food use of shark fins, also considered an aphrodisiac (with the practice of finning in which the amputated animal is thrown into the sea), to the bycatch due to fishing and meat consumption which sees Italy at 3' place in the world, it is still possible to purchase supplements based on shark cartilage, considered an anti-tumor, in many Italian pharmacies and herbalist shops.This belief gained widespread popularity thanks to a 1992 bestseller:Sharks do not get cancer:How Shark Cartilage Can Save Your Life, by William Lane and Linda Comac.The book was based on faulty data, never published peer-reviewed clinical studies, and faulty assumptions:all trials carried out so far have concluded that shark cartilage has no effects on cancer patients.However, the buffalo has contributed to fueling the fishing of these animals.According to the WWF, more than half of the shark species present in the Mediterranean are at risk.A higher percentage than in the rest of the oceans considering that, according to the IUCN, the World Union for Conservation of Nature, in the rest of the world the shark and ray species at risk of extinction are around a third (36% ).Yet, preserving sharks and rays would not only help maintain the balance of marine ecosystems, but would also have a positive impact in the fight against climate change.Their presence contributes to carbon sequestration and the maintenance of marine biodiversity, providing a natural solution to mitigate the effects of climate change, as recently illustrated in the WWF report 'Domino effect' for the Our Nature Campaign in defense of biodiversity.