Hello everyone!
When I was first thinking of what to write in my next post, I wanted to target a species that was a little closer to home. Singapore, as one of the major transit hubs, tends to have many encounters with illegal wildlife trade (URL)!
Just last year, we had one of the biggest seizures of pangolin scales. At first, I tried to ask an NParks conservation manager for more input in the trade. Unfortunately, he informed me that information about this is not open to the public.
Upon investigation, I found a report by TRAFFIC. You would be amazed at the vast number and variety of species traded, which includes but is not limited to Asian bears (for their bile), pangolins, rhino horns, saiga horns, etc.
The one thing that caught my eye was that Singapore is the world’s biggest transit hub for saiga horns. Not only that, but we contribute largely to the consumption of saiga products as well (Doughty et al, 2019). The combination of poaching and climate change has devastated saiga antelopes, which are listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.
Critically endangered wild Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) near watering in steppe. Federal nature reserve Mekletinskii, Kalmykia, Russia, August, 2015. Source: Dreamtime
Saiga horns are often used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and promoted for its “cooling effect”. I decided to investigate further and went to check out some of the products sold in supermarkets and TCM shops!
In the supermarkets, I checked out three bands – Antelope & Rhino brand cooling water, Rhinoceros brand cooling water, and Three legs cooling water. Does any of these brands seem familiar to you? Thankfully, after checking all the ingredients, none of these brands contained actual antelopes’ or rhinoceros’ horns.
*To find out more about the gypsum fibrosum and calcium, here are the links!
Unfortunately, when I went to check out the cooling water at two well-established TCM shops, both sold cooling water that indeed contained antelope horns.
Photo of cooling water containing antelope horn
As it turns out, this is the most popular choice among consumers (Theng et al, 2018). One of the reasons why people chose to consume saiga products is because they feel that it is a potent treatment for sicknesses considered “heaty” (Theng et al, 2018). Whether saiga horns really work to counteract “heatiness” is debatable.
Some of you might be wondering, how can a critically endangered species be openly consumed and traded like this at such large volumes in Singapore? This question stumped me initially as well but further digging led me to find that because the species is listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), this allows the shop to legally sell and trade products made from the species as long as it has the government issued CITES permit (URL).
Therefore, always remember to check your cooling products for saiga horns or other derivatives of endangered species. Conservation awareness is important to save the species and decrease the demand for saiga products (Theng et al, 2018). Many do not know that the sale of their products is pushing the species to extinction so let’s try our best to raise awareness to current and potential consumers that we know of!
“Check before you buy, think before they die!”
References
Bekenov, A. B., Grachev, I. A., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (1998). The ecology and management of the Saiga antelope in Kazakhstan. Mammal Review, 28(1), 1-52. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2907.1998.281024.x
Doughty, H., Veríssimo, D., Tan, R., Lee, J. S., Carrasco, L. R., Oliver, K., & Milner-Gulland, E. (2019). Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore. doi:10.31235/osf.io/t4dp7
Theng, M., Glikman, J. A., & Milner-Gulland, E. J. (2018). Exploring saiga horn consumption in Singapore. Oryx, 52(4), 736-743. doi:10.1017/s0030605317001624
September 22, 2020 at 3:26 am
Hi Stacia!
Thanks for the insight into the saga of saigas 😮 I had no idea that saiga antelopes were critically endangered. Personally I don’t believe in the efficacy of such traditional ‘boosters’ but I remember someone I know being down with a bad cough, and he asked me to buy a few bottles of antelope cooling water for him. At that point I did find the drink odd but I didn’t think that it was contributing to the rapid decline of saiga antelopes.. what are some ways we can raise conservation awareness?
Clive
September 24, 2020 at 2:08 pm
Hi Clive! Thanks for the great question. Many people actually share the same sentiments as you and are unaware that consumption contributes to the decline of the species as more saigas would be killed for their horns to serve this purpose. Thus, I believe firstly is to make that common knowledge! It was observed that consumers would stop consumption if the practice threatened the species or if the harvest practice was cruel (Theng et al, 2019).
Secondly, the promotion of effective alternatives is important to curb demand as well. For example, paracetamol (panadol), the most popular alternatives to saiga horn, should be recommended over saiga horns as the production of these synthetic drugs would not lead to the extinction of the saigas and are effective in treating fevers. It is, however, important to note that the promotion of alternatives does not refer to the use of horns from other species!
Hope this helps! Thanks!
September 24, 2020 at 3:06 pm
Hi Stacia!
Thank you for raising this issue! I’m sure many of the older generation like our grandparents strongly believe in the benefits of drinking cooling water or herbal tea sold at TCM shops. Do you think it is possible for us to change their perceptions of such drinks, and discourage them from consuming medicine that is often made up of endangered species?
– Jo
September 25, 2020 at 2:47 pm
Hi Jo!
Surprisingly, although the main clientele was identified as Chinese Singaporean elderly, they actually consumed the product the least (Theng et al, 2019)! This is because the saiga horns are believed to be more effective in treating the young and might be detrimental to the health of the elderly.
With this in mind, I believe the youth play a crucial role in saiga horn consumption especially with decreasing the demand for it. Raising awareness of it to both our peers and the elderly is important. The majority of the youth that consumed saiga horn products also stated that it is because an elder of family member recommended it (Theng et al, 2019). If our grandparents were to buy these products for us, I believe the utmost thing that should be done is for ourselves to educate the elderly and deny the consumption of such products.
I hope I answered your question and do let me know if I missed out any parts!
September 25, 2020 at 9:50 am
Hey Stacia!
That was a very interesting and informative read! I have seen those bottles around and the name caught my attention but I didn’t know they actually used antelope horns… yikes… This question may be bit far-fetched but do you think that those antelope horns could possibly serve as carrier of diseases (because of the lack of regulations etc), causing people to be sick instead of curing them?
Lixuan
September 25, 2020 at 3:01 pm
Hi Lixuan,
Unfortunately, I was not able to find out if saiga horns specifically served as a vector for disease transmission. However, the illegal wildlife trade as a whole could serve as a vector for zoonotic diseases, especially without regulation.
For example, although the main cause of COVID-19 is still unknown, it is suspected to have come from bats in a China wildlife market (1). This, therefore, led China to discontinue all consumption of wildlife, including those sold in markets (1). This highlights the severity of zoonotic diseases and shows that governments are indeed trying to mitigate this threat. COVID-19 isn’t the only zoonotic disease that came about, others include SARS, Ebola, Bird Flu, and MERS which are transmitted from mammals and birds (1).
This highlights that when dealing with wildlife, there is always a risk of zoonotic disease. Unregulated trade like illegal wildlife trade makes it difficult to track and mitigate these risks. Hence, there is always a possibility that they can serve as a carrier of diseases, even if it is not known yet.
References
1. https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/covid-19-and-wildlife-trade-perspectives-and-proposed-actions
October 8, 2020 at 6:58 pm
Hi Stacia,
I think Yin Chuan’s blog (https://blog.nus.edu.sg/earthandotherdrugs/2020/10/02/the-reckoning/) would be very interesting to you as his current and next posts are about TCM. Have a look. I love how you have so much first hand interviews incorporated into your blogs. 🙂
-Li Zhe