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Hooded vulture and Wildlife trade
Traditional Trade, October 30, 2022
The Hooded vulture, one of my selected species of interest, it’s amazing how I have developed so much fondness for a species. As an Ornithologist, I hope to contribute towards improving their status locally in my country Ghana, really for all threatened vultures. This will go a long way to help the species. I would like to touch a little bit on the trade in species in general based on observations during field work for my thesis. This is not to thoroughly discuss trade in wildlife, for that you can always read my published article, “Trade in wildlife for traditional medicine in Ghana: therapeutic values, zoonoses considerations, and implications for biodiversity conservation”, this is just a short discussion on the trade in wildlife in Ghana. A wide range of reasons was attributed as the uses of the animal parts, these include money rituals, protection against evil spirits and demons, reversal of curses and spiritual eyesight. Generally, animal parts were used in curing of sicknesses and (strange illness), some of the parts were also said to be used as ingredients in preparing concoctions for the above or similar purposes. During my survey for my undergraduate thesis, a vendor, who was a Christian was asked of her view on the traditional medicine trade and if it did work for those who purchased, she said “they believe it works so we sell to them”. Another vendor said she did not believe it worked, however, the fact that the trade has not collapsed but still grows demonstrate that it is quite somehow achieving its purpose, but that said this study will not encourage the trade as it has irreversible negative impacts such as direct loss of individuals of the species populations which may not be replaced rapidly by birth of new individuals. It is amazing how my people still believe in such things, for species conservation, there remains a lot of psychological barriers that needs to be addressed. Below are some pictures of wildlife being traded in. Viewers discretion is advised.
Sample Species traded in for Traditional medicine
Hooded vultures, Pied crow, Barn owl and even a domestic dog
