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humanodon  ·  3886 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Most Trafficked Mammal You've Never Heard Of

Attitudes toward eating wild game and especially endangered species are changing, but unfortunately this is something that's deeply rooted in these cultures. Sometimes securing business means going out with some guys to go eat wild game and drink rice wine infused with different animals or their blood.

What is heartening though, is that among the educated and the wealthy, the children are much more aware of the impact of eating these kinds of foods and it's seen more and more as something that the uneducated and less worldly do. Part of the problem though, is that it's the rich that can afford to buy these animals and to consume them most often and it's seen as something tied to status.

On the other hand, Malaysia has had great success with ecological tourism, something Vietnam and Indonesia are both eager to capitalize on and so hopefully as more money flows into these countries, there will be less incentive to harvest animals for traditional medicine. Of course, this will involve a lot of effort and effective organizing and I doubt the problem will ever be entirely eradicated, but I do hope that it will at least slow the possibility of extinction for many species.