Cockfighting has been unlawful in Costa Rica for greater than a century, however this violent custom persists underground throughout the nation. To make the birds deadlier, their homeowners usually tie razor-sharp blades to their legs, generally known as gaffs or cockspurs. Other than the roosters, which get severely injured or killed throughout fights, one other species has change into an unlikely sufferer of the cockspur commerce: the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), a critically endangered species whose shell is commonly used to make these lethal implements.
Hawksbills have lengthy been focused for his or her black-and-brown mottled shells, utilized in jewellery, combs and different decorations going again to historic Rome. The species was additionally traditionally hunted for its meat way back to the fifth century B.C.E. in China.
Maike Heidemeyer, a Costa Rica-based marine biologist and head of biodiversity and neighborhood for the nonprofit conservation group Pure Capital Reserve, first observed tortoiseshell spurs at vacation markets about 20 years in the past after transferring to the nation from Germany. The spurs have been overtly displayed, combined in with different hawksbill-shell merchandise like bracelets and trinkets. Although she says most of these daring exhibitions of hawksbill merchandise have tapered off lately, demand stays, regardless of the nationwide ban on cockfighting.
“There are associations, teams that overtly defend their proper to struggle cocks, even in Costa Rica,” says Heidemeyer, who has been lengthy concerned in sea turtle analysis and based Equipo Tora Carey, a corporation dedicated to coastal marine conservation. “After all it’s unlawful, however then they do it hidden.”
The hawksbill’s beak-like mouth can be offered alongside the Costa Rican-Panamanian border for cockfights, in response to Spanish publication El País, which says homeowners put them on prime of their birds’ beaks.
Preventing again towards the commerce
Most of Costa Rica’s hawksbill spurs come into the nation overland from Nicaragua to the north and Panama to the south, Heidemeyer tells Mongabay.
In an effort to crack down on cockfighting, Costa Rican authorities have seized lots of of those spurs lately. In Could 2024, a bust close to the Nicaraguan border seized 29 hawksbill spurs, whereas a 2019 operation in Guanacaste province in northwestern Costa Rica confiscated 98 smuggled spikes.
Nevertheless, this in all probability barely scratches the floor of the commerce, Heidemeyer says. And although the federal government is cracking down on spurs and different cockfighting paraphernalia, “no person’s actually asking in regards to the materials of the spike that they’re seeing,” she says, noting that hawksbill shell is well mistaken for plastic. A simple method to differentiate shell-derived merchandise from plastic is to burn them: when lit, turtle shell smells like human hair burning, because it’s made up of the identical protein, keratin.
Didiher Chacón, founder and director of the Latin American Sea Turtles Affiliation (LAST), says his group trains Costa Rican officers to assist them determine hawksbill merchandise. He and his crew additionally work undercover, shopping for spurs and different merchandise from sellers as a way to construct felony circumstances they’ll current to authorities. In addition they monitor on-line social networks for posts promoting hawksbill spurs and report them to get them eliminated.
Nonetheless, conservationists face big hurdles. As an illustration, frequent officer turnover makes it troublesome to make sure employees are adequately skilled to determine hawksbill shells after they encounter them, Heidemeyer tells Mongabay.
“Our system in customs is simply searching for weapons and medicines, not these product,” Chacón says. “I believe we have to work more durable to attempt to prepare the mail officers and the customs police to cease these items.”
A world drawback
Specialists warn that these occasional confiscations don’t tackle the foundation of the problem: the unlawful harvest of hawksbills for his or her shells. Though the species is protected beneath CITES, the conference that regulates the worldwide wildlife commerce, that hasn’t stopped poachers.
In keeping with Chacón, who has labored in sea turtle conservation for greater than three many years, neighboring Nicaragua is a hotspot for buying and selling hawksbill merchandise.
“They don’t seem to be in a very powerful worldwide agreements just like the Inter-American Conference [for the Protection and Conservation of Sea Turtles],” he says.
And whereas the scenario has improved in international locations like Colombia and the Dominican Republic, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment, Chacón provides.
To assist cease the commerce, Chacón’s group trains folks in international locations like Guatemala, Honduras and Panama to higher acknowledge hawksbill merchandise.
Panama has proven some success in preventing again towards the commerce lately. In 2022, as an illustration, raids at two companies within the province of Chiriquí resulted within the seizure of 199 hawksbill spurs. Native regulation enforcement additionally lately enlisted the assistance of Jeffrey Seminoff, head of the marine turtle program on the U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Middle, to assist them determine the origin of a confiscated batch of 77 cockfighting spurs produced from hawksbill shells.
Since turtles’ our bodies tackle the distinctive isotopic signature of their habitat, Seminoff and his analysis accomplice, Joel Schumacher, analyzed ranges of stabilized nitrogen and carbon within the spurs, evaluating them to baseline ranges discovered within the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
They discovered that 69 of the spurs originated within the Atlantic-Caribbean area. Whereas this wasn’t too shocking, as most of Latin America’s hawksbills reside in Atlantic waters, “there are eight of these samples that got here from the Pacific,” Seminoff says. “And so it indicated to us — it’s like irrefutable proof — that the hawksbill provide chain in Panama is getting animals sourced from each their Atlantic coast and their Pacific coast.”
Seminoff says this type of data may assist conservationists focus their efforts on the areas with the best poaching charges — on this case, Panama’s Caribbean area. Although no different international locations have requested comparable analyses, “I felt like this was a extremely precious mission and one thing that I’d love to do once more if the supply presents itself,” Seminoff tells Mongabay.
Altering mindsets and behaviors
In Costa Rica, LAST runs academic applications in main and secondary faculties situated close to seashores the place folks hunt hawksbills, in addition to in larger cities alongside the coast, aiming to interact youngsters in sea turtle conservation from an early age.
Chacón says shopper actions are critically vital in terms of defending turtles. When poachers harvest hawksbills, they’re not focusing on them particularly for spurs but in addition for different merchandise, which frequently discover their method into vacationer outlets and on-line markets worldwide.
“The habits code of vacationers [is very important], particularly in terms of tropical areas — how they’ll create a footprint shopping for these items,” he says. “The factor is to teach the vacationers to not purchase turtle merchandise. Don’t attempt to purchase or to eat turtle eggs or turtle meat or any aphrodisiac drink just like the mamajuana in Dominican Republic or Cuba that has some physique elements of the turtle.”
Nevertheless, communities additionally should shift their mindset about cockfighting as a way to make a distinction for turtles and roosters, Heidemeyer says. Although Costa Rica’s cockfighting ban was lately upheld by the Inter-American Fee on Human Rights after being challenged by the nation’s Nationwide Affiliation of Cockfighting Breeders in 2017 — a victory celebrated by animal welfare teams — each she and Chacón are unsure about any affect it will have on cockfighting or turtle harvests. Cockfighting additionally stays authorized in lots of different international locations, like Colombia and Panama.
“I’m unsure if that is ever going to be eradicated till the folks change their thoughts, their perspective in the direction of animal welfare,” Heidemeyer says.
This article by Tina Deines was first revealed by Mongabay.com on 13 December 2024. Lead Picture: The hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), a critically endangered species, is commonly used to make spurs for cockfighting. Picture by Leonardo Lamas through Unsplash.
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