<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > the scorpion crisis in Helan Mountain</h1>
Residents living near Helan Mountain have found that the scorpions on the mountain have become smaller and smaller in number in recent years, and the local area has even been "completely destroyed" and has not seen a single one for many years. So what exactly did the scorpion of Helan Mountain go through? This article has a glimpse of what it is.
The crazy scorpion hunting army is the main reason for the decrease in the number of scorpions in Helan Mountain. At first, the scorpions of Helan Mountain were not very popular, and a small number of nearby villagers occasionally went up the mountain to catch a few bubble wine to drink. The turning point occurred in 2005, when a "boom" of scorpion catching suddenly broke out around Helan Mountain: the captured scorpions were priced according to their appearance, ranging from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan per pound, while the per capita disposable income of Helan Mountain at that time was only a few hundred yuan.
Catching scorpions to make money is undoubtedly a good opportunity to make a "windfall", which has attracted a large number of people to participate in just a few years. Some villagers with flexible minds have simply become scorpion traders or brokers after harvesting scorpions and figuring out the upstream and downstream of shipments. Therefore, the scorpions captured on Helan Mountain were transported to other places the next day at the latest, or even that night. The entire chain of catching scorpions and selling scorpions has also been gradually established and perfected, which has laid the groundwork for a significant reduction in scorpions in Helan Mountain.
Here's an introduction to the Helan Mountain Scorpion. The scorpion is an arthropod consisting of a cephalothorax and abdomen, with a yellowish-brown body, a paler ventral surface and appendages, and a darker color of the fifth segment of the posterior abdomen. The vast majority of scorpions contain toxins, some are highly toxic and can kill people with one blow, and some have mild toxins, but do not prevent it from becoming a high-quality Chinese medicine. In the theory of Traditional Chinese medicine in China, the scorpion has the effect of relieving wind and suppressing spasms, attacking poison and scattering knots, and relieving pain in the network, and has a significant effect on diseases such as crooked mouth and eyes, rheumatism, and frozen shoulder.
In addition to making medicinal herbs, eating wild scorpions has been highly respected by some consumers in recent years. Some experts explain that although the toxins in the scorpion lose their activity after being fried at high temperatures, this is extremely demanding on the cooking heat, and every year some people are poisoned by eating scorpions. At present, one of the main people who eat scorpions is a southern city headed by Guangzhou; the other is the local Helan Mountain, where farms and restaurants often cook scorpions into various delicacies as a specialty to attract customers.
Medicinal use and consumption have created a huge demand for scorpions. Data show that the global market needs at least tens of thousands of tons of scorpions every year, and a considerable part of it is consumed by China, China's farmed scorpion production is only 100 tons or so, simply unable to bear the huge market gap, naturally some people will target the wild scorpion, the focus is on the consumer perception of wild scorpions than farmed scorpions in the quality of better, although the actual breeding and wild scorpions are almost no different.
Under the blessing of various factors, the price of wild scorpions in Helan Mountain has risen, and in 2011, the newly caught scorpions can sell for 300 or 400 hundred yuan a kilogram, and now it has soared to more than 1,000 yuan a pound. High profits and good incomes have made a large number of scorpion catchers invest in it, and even some people have changed from part-time jobs and tickets to full-time in the past.
Taking Crescent Lake Township in Sichuan City as an example, there are at least 2,000 scorpion catchers every day, and some scorpion catchers can only catch a few or even a few scorpions a day when they just joined; experienced people can catch 4 or 5 two, and happen to be able to get up the pound, but it is not at all an order of magnitude with the peak of a few pounds of scorpion catchers a day. The reduction of scorpions in Helan Mountain has become an unavoidable fact.
A villager who changed from a scorpion catcher to a scorpion trader gradually became one of the largest scorpion traders in the northwest. He alone bought thousands of tons of scorpions from Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia every year and sold them to southern markets and restaurants, most of which were made into fried scorpions.
The crazy scorpion hunting behavior that lasted for 15 years has affected the normal reproduction of scorpions, and the number of large scorpions in the 2nd and 3rd generations is getting smaller and smaller, and they are some small scorpions that are not yet underage. Due to the fierce competition among scorpion catchers, the emphasis on taking the big and letting go of the small ones has disappeared, and it is basically caught when the scorpion is seen. A scorpion catcher who has been engaged in it for many years once revealed to reporters that if this continues like this, there will be no scorpions to catch in Helan Mountain in a few years!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > the difficulty of managing scorpion hunting</h1>
In fact, the role of the scorpion is not limited to medicinal and edible, its ecological role can not be underestimated. Common scorpion species are mountain scorpion, spotted scorpion, Qin scorpion, without exception, mainly meat-eating. For example, a Qinquan scorpion can eat more than 10,000 locusts a year, saving a large amount of insect control funds.
And the scorpion itself is part of the ecosystem, such as rats, geckos, ants and other animals can rely on scorpions to feed, once the scorpion greatly reduces the foraging of other animals will also be affected. Therefore, in recent years, the relevant local departments in Helan Mountain have continued to crack down on the theft of scorpions.
In July 2020, the Ningxia Forest public security bureau jointly launched a special governance against scorpion hunting: 2 wild scorpion acquisition sites were investigated and punished, 3 scorpion traders were arrested, more than 200 scorpion catchers were dissuaded, and about 15 kilograms of wild scorpions and more than 20,000 wild scorpions were confiscated at the scene.
Catch scorpions
The problem is that there is also a certain "entanglement" in the management of scorpion-catching behavior. Scorpion catchers do not need any advanced tools, only need a ultraviolet lamp, a plastic bucket, a tweezers, plus a motorcycle or bicycle, such a simple equipment makes the scorpion catching behavior become more mobile, high flexibility, in many cases scorpion catchers see the situation is not good to throw their legs to run, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of dissuasion and governance.
In addition, scorpions are currently just ordinary wild animals, not protected animals with the same special status, but also caused scorpion catchers to stop the main, and many scorpion catchers belong to low-income groups, relying on scorpion catching to subsidize families, although scorpion middlemen make a lot of money.
The governance and restoration of scorpion resources in Helan Mountain is actually a systematic project. The local government can try to increase the support of artificial breeding of scorpions, if you can earn money through breeding, the number of people who steal scorpions will naturally decrease. Further, instead of facing thousands of scorpion catchers, it is better to cut off the circulation channels of scorpions and encourage middlemen to participate in the scorpion farming industry, after all, these people have strong funds, a high degree of understanding of the scorpion industry, and a greater success rate of breeding.
Original: Old High