Poachers Are Using Scientific Papers to Guide Them to Their Next Victims

When scientists publish a paper on a particular species, they’re generally not imagining that they’re helping out poachers. But that’s exactly what’s happening for some scientists. According to Laurel Neme at Mongabay, scientists discovering a new species have been inadvertently contributing to wildlife trading. Take the story of Bryan Stuart, who has discovered 27 different species of newts:

Shortly after Stuart described the previously unknown species Laotriton (Paramesotriton) laoensis in a scientific paper published in 2002, commercial dealers began collecting this Lao newt for sale into the pet trade. In essence, the dealers used Stuart’s geographic description in the paper as a “roadmap” to find the rare newt.

Collectors came from all over to the two tiny streams where Stuart found the newt and began illegally collecting the critters and selling them for over $250 a pop. And Neme says that Stuart’s story isn’t even that uncommon:

This situation is not unique. It’s also happened with a turtle (Chelodina mccordi) from the small Indonesian island of Roti, which was so heavily hunted that today it is nearly extinct in the wild. Similarly, a rare gecko (Goniurosaurus luii) from southeastern China was extirpated from its locality as prices in importing countries soared to highs of $1,500 to $2,000 each.

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/12/poachers-are-using-scientific-papers-to-guide-them-to-their-next-victims/