As if vanishing habitat and hunting are not enough existential threats to the jaguar's survival in the wild, a booming tourism trade to experience the psychoactive native drug, ayahuasca, is stimulating trade in jaguar parts which charlatans sell as enhancements to that experience. America's largest feline, Panthera onca has lost half its historic range and 25% of its population in the last three generations earning a listing by the IUCN as nearly threatened.
The Chinese already demand jaguar fangs, but during a recent tour of Peruvian cities associated with ayahuasca tourism by researchers, jaguar skins, paws,
stuffed heads, and fangs were found for sale in the markets. [photo credit: A. Braczakowski] These body
parts are sold as trinkets to people under the pretense that they
somehow enhance
the ayahuasca experience. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew made from the
ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and chakruna leaves (Psychotria viridis). Traditionally the brew is an element of native shamanic rituals, but has become popular for recreational use in recent decades.Researchers stress that range country governments need to closely monitor the ayahuasca tourism industry for the sale of jaguar body parts. Peru has an anti-trafficking law, but enforcement is lax and inconsistent. Another enforcement tool could be tourist education about the importance of live jaguars to the forest ecosystem. If informed about the plight of the jaguar, and wildlife in general, they may be loath to purchase products made from dead cats. Legitimate shamans stress the importance of the jaguar as a powerful spiritual totem, and its vital role in maintaining natural balance in the wild. Those offering a "ayahuasca experience" to visitors could be leaders in protecting the animal they allegedly revere by deterring tourists from using body parts.
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| credit: S.Winter/ NatGeo |