When it comes to scorpions, people's first impression may be that of poisonous and dangerous arthropods. However, in the folk, scorpions have always been valuable Chinese medicinal materials, and they are authentic "sought-after goods". Especially in recent years, special snacks made of scorpions have begun to become popular in the consumer market in Guangdong and other places, and they have swept the night market streets, and the popularity remains high.
A snack made with scorpions
This particular dietary habit poses a fatal crisis for wild scorpions. Because artificial breeding of scorpions is very difficult to meet market demand, the more readily available wild scorpions have naturally become "targeted", and the phenomenon of indiscriminate scorpion hunting is common everywhere. From the perspective of production, the most distributed areas of wild scorpions are Henan and Shandong provinces, but in terms of the degree of indiscriminate fishing, the more serious is the Helan Mountain area in Ningxia.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > what threats do scorpions face in natural situations? </h1>
In China, the wild resources of scorpions are still abundant, and there are 15 common species of scorpions, such as East Asian pincer scorpions, ten-legged scorpions, Tibetan scorpions, Qinquan scorpions, mountain scorpions and so on. Different types of scorpions, adult specifications are different, generally about 4 to 6 centimeters, the number of ctenophores is as small as 5 to 8, more than 16 to 25, different forms.
Most of the scorpions in the wild inhabit sunny, dry and leeward places, are good at building nests, and are "construction masters". During the day, scorpions hide in caves and only go out to forage at night. After observation, it was found that scorpions basically do not eat dead bugs, and agile insects such as locusts and earth turtles can stimulate the scorpion's desire to hunt.
By the way, most of the insects that scorpions prey on are pests, and the annual catch can reach 10,000, which is an agricultural beneficial insect. Wild scorpions are now generally considered to be of great benefit to preventing locust plagues and maintaining the ecological health of woodlands and farmland, and their ecological value is high.
Scorpions, like snakes and frogs, are warming animals and are significantly affected by temperature during mating, littering, and dormant overwintering. Studies have shown that the most suitable growth temperature of scorpions is 28 to 38 ° C, as the temperature decreases, its predatory activity will decrease, below 7 ° C to stop eating, minus 5 ° C may be frozen to death.
In addition to temperature, wild scorpions face threats from many predators, common predators such as ants, rats, weasels, geckos, wild birds, frogs, spiders, snakes and so on.
Birds are experts at hunting scorpions
Take rats, for example. After breaking into the scorpion's nest, the rat will first bite the scorpion's back and eat all the internal organs, and the rest will be thrown away. A rat can eat about 20 scorpions at a time, and its food is greedy and harmful. For scorpion farmers, rats are absolutely intolerable predators and cause great losses to aquaculture production.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > the crisis of the Scorpions of Helan Mountain</h1>
Among the many threat factors, the biggest impact on wild scorpions is the long-term uncontrolled indiscriminate fishing.
Market research shows that there is at least 5,000 tons of scorpion demand in the world every year, but the current aquaculture production is only about 400 tons, which is far from meeting the demand. Although domestic artificial scorpion farming has been developed for more than 40 years, its production is far from being able to erase the gap. Therefore, many farmers, driven by interests, formed a "scorpion hunting army" and hunted wild scorpions, resulting in a sharp decrease in scorpions in local areas.
Helan Mountain is an important distribution area for wild scorpions
In 2003, the market price of scorpions in the Helan Mountains of Ningxia was 120 yuan / kg, and as wild scorpions became less and less, the purchase price in 2009 gradually rose to 316 yuan / kg. In recent years, the price of scorpions has further increased to 500 yuan / kg, while the price of medicinal dried scorpions is even higher, around 800 ~ 1000 yuan / kg.
Cave-dwelling scorpions
Farmers in Ningxia Crescent Lake, Hongsi Fort, Lingwu and other places have the habit of catching wild scorpions, especially at night, the residents of townships and towns gather to form scorpion catching teams, ranging from hundreds to thousands of people, the scale is unimaginable. Especially in Crescent Lake Township, there are more than 2,000 people who catch scorpions every day, and the total income after a night of hard work can reach more than 200,000 yuan, and the scale of scorpion catching is the largest in the entire Xingqing District.
Scorpion acquisition
Many residents have many years of experience in catching scorpions, and each time they will prepare special tools, such as small buckets, ultraviolet lamps, tweezers, plastic bottles and so on. With good luck, you can easily catch hundreds of them in one night, sell them to buyers in the early morning, and eventually flow to consumer sites in Guangdong, Hainan and other places.
Ultraviolet rays illuminate scorpions under lamps
Residents of Minning Town, Yongning County, reported that from Helan to Yinchuan, the wild scorpions on the hillsides were basically caught, and many people have now expanded their search to the Pingluo County area. The staff of the Helan Mountain Forestry Bureau also said that the scorpions caught by the farmers are large and small, and the small ones are only about 1 centimeter, and the phenomenon of indiscriminate fishing is very serious.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > thousands of people catch scorpions, why doesn't anyone "manage"? </h1>
The phenomenon of catching scorpions in Ningxia can be traced back to 2004, when the domestic scorpion market first took shape, and fewer people caught scorpions. Since 2005, the number of scorpion catches has begun to rise, and in 2006 the local government explicitly restricted the practice of scorpion catching, but the effect was minimal.
Catch scorpions
Some people may ask, why not just issue a no-catch order? Wouldn't it be more effective to eliminate scorpion hunting at the source?
Unfortunately, it is very difficult to completely ban fishing. Wild scorpions are not included in the list of wild animals under key protection in China, nor do they belong to any level of protected species. Although the Helan Mountain Nature Reserve has long been a phenomenon of indiscriminate scorpion hunting, law enforcement personnel have fallen into the dilemma of being unable to rely on, which is the biggest obstacle.
Residents go up the hill to catch scorpions
The local forest police have submitted an initiative to the relevant departments to recommend that the Helan Mountain scorpion be listed as a protected animal at the autonomous region level, but this proposal has never provoked a splash.
In addition, many scorpion catchers have limited family economic conditions, most of them are ordinary farmers, and there are many special difficult groups, and it is not realistic to impose fines and penalties. The end result is often criticism of education or verbal warnings, the most severe of which is nothing more than confiscation of tools, but this punishment is obviously not strong enough to solve the problem at the source.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" will the Helan Mountain scorpion go extinct >? </h1>
The possibility of local extinction of the Helan Mountain scorpion is not sensational.
In fact, similar incidents have already happened. In the Ningxia region, the behavior of hair vegetables was rampant for a while, and some farmers even went to Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia to raise hair vegetables, which not only caused great damage to the grassland ecology, but also led to the near extinction of hair vegetables in many places. At present, wild hair vegetables in the northwest region have been very rare and belong to the wild plants under national key protection.
Helan Mountain Scorpion may also fall into the same predicament for the following reasons:
First, scorpions belong to oviparous animals, their own reproductive ability is low, each time can lay 5 to 10 baby scorpions, only a few species can lay 40 to 60 (such as Qinquan scorpion). In infancy, scorpions are preyed upon by various predators and take up to 3 years to mature, with a low survival rate.
Scorpions and their descendants
Second, in recent years, the number of people catching scorpions has increased unabated, and the phenomenon of indiscriminate fishing has not been rectified for a long time. It has become an indisputable fact that scorpions in local areas are getting smaller and smaller, and their numbers have dropped sharply. As the range of scorpion catches grows, scorpions in more areas will not be able to escape.
Third, with the large use of pesticides and fertilizers in the northwest and north China, the habitat of scorpions has been seriously damaged. Man-made activities such as reclamation of mountains and road mining also threaten the natural population of scorpions, leading to the depletion of wild resources.
In short, scorpions are a bridge species in grassland and forest ecosystems, and play an important role in maintaining ecological balance and preventing insect pests. Protecting wild scorpions is imminent, and it will take everyone to work together and offer advice!
What good advice do you have for the protection of wild scorpions? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.