[HN Gopher] Sloth poaching in northwestern Colombia
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Sloth poaching in northwestern Colombia
Author : bryanrasmussen
Score : 26 points
Date : 2022-01-24 15:00 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nationalgeographic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nationalgeographic.com)
| niiinnneee9981 wrote:
| If one is very keen on seeing sloths, one can definitely avoid
| sloth poachers and instead go to a sloth sanctuary (e.g.
| https://www.slothsanctuary.com/frequently-asked-questions/vi...).
| You won't be able to touch the sloths, but you will be able to
| see them from a distance.
| iqanq wrote:
| Colombia, not Columbia.
| dang wrote:
| Argh that was me. The funny thing was I was thinking "must
| remember to spell this right" as I spelled it wrong.
|
| Fixed now. Thanks!
| pawsforthought wrote:
| When will people learn that wild animals should not be pets? This
| just saddens me.
| nerdponx wrote:
| When people stop being selfish.
| sbayona573 wrote:
| Getting a pet sloth is a guaranteed way to kill it.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Sloths are amazing animals and the three-toed variety seen in
| this article is insanely cute but unfortunately for them, their
| cuteness makes them a desirable object for the tourist selfie
| industry and people who want them as pets and therefore a target
| for unscrupulous poachers. And since they're too slow and low on
| energy to defend themselves it means they're an easy target and
| most likely won't survive their captors very long.
|
| They've managed to survive for so long by perfectly adapting to
| that very specific "goldilocks" rainforest canopy environment.
| Take them out of that environment or stress them out too much and
| they will get sick and die. They really don't make good pets.
| That's why most zoos have only sloths of the two-toed variety as
| they're more resilient vs the three-toed sloths featured in this
| article.
|
| I wish Colombia would make the sloth trade illegal and also
| inform tourists not to pay for any services related to
| interactions with wild sloths under the penalty of law. If you
| destroy the demand for a service, the supply will naturally fall,
| but the core issue is more complex as the quote below highlights
| what the main problem is:
|
| _> December through February are typically the busiest months,
| when he and his friends can sell at least 30 sloths. "I really
| want to stop," says Morales, who provides for his mother and nine
| siblings. "I feel like I don't have another option."_
|
| I totally get that when people are desperate and out of options
| of making a decent living they will turn to less humane gigs to
| feed their family. The key would be to get these people out of
| poverty first so they don't have to capture and sell wild
| animals.
| csdvrx wrote:
| > If you destroy the demand for a service, the supply will
| naturally fall, but the core issue is more complex as the quote
| below highlights what the main problem is:
|
| Alternative take: the demand of the service "sloth-as-pets"
| could lead to their domestication/breeding in captivity, like
| the Cobra Effect
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive)
|
| That's another reason I'm not so concerned for endangered
| species humans find yummy/cute/(...): there's a strong
| financial incentive we never run out of them!
| shh_labs wrote:
| Isn't the issue not the survival of the species, but the
| cruelty to the individuals?
| csdvrx wrote:
| Then it's a case of moving goalposts, as all the cases
| about endangered species have been made about the survival
| of the species.
| shh_labs wrote:
| So it's OK to be cruel to species that aren't endangered?
| csdvrx wrote:
| > So it's OK to be cruel to species that aren't
| endangered?
|
| Then my apologies, it's an appeal to emotions + moving
| the goalpost.
|
| It's ok for people to do things you may disapprove of as
| long as it's legal.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| poaching is a macho crime and there is little "desperate" that
| I can see in that. From random other information, it seems that
| high powered automatic rifles are quite common in some
| populations. How much money does ammunition and service of many
| hundreds of high powered automatic rifles cost?
|
| My take - markets do not price at all rationally in the wild
| lands, and human nature is the driver here.
| kpennell wrote:
| Gah, when you've spent any time in Colombia, you're condemned to
| spend the rest of your life correcting the very easy u (vowel)
| spelling mistake. Easy one to make since the university is
| spelled that way + Columbus. But gah, it gets under your skin.
|
| That said, cool article!
| dang wrote:
| Sorry. Fixed now.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30090849
| neonate wrote:
| https://archive.is/JE68L
|
| http://web.archive.org/web/20220125213943/https://www.nation...
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(page generated 2022-01-26 23:01 UTC)