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 typically tie razor-sharp blades to their legs, often 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 historical 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 group for the nonprofit conservation group Pure Capital Reserve, first seen tortoiseshell spurs at vacation markets about twenty years in the past after shifting to the nation from Germany. The spurs had been overtly displayed, blended in with different hawksbill-shell merchandise like bracelets and trinkets. Although she says all 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 battle cocks, even in Costa Rica,” says Heidemeyer, who has been lengthy concerned in sea turtle analysis and based Equipo Tora Carey, a company 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 accordance with Spanish publication El País, which says homeowners put them on high of their birds’ beaks.
Combating 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 a whole lot 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.
Nonetheless, this most likely 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 definitely mistaken for plastic. A straightforward option 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 establish hawksbill merchandise. He and his crew additionally work undercover, shopping for spurs and different merchandise from sellers as a way to construct legal instances they will current to authorities. Additionally they monitor on-line social networks for posts promoting hawksbill spurs and report them to get them eliminated.
Nonetheless, conservationists face large hurdles. As an example, frequent officer turnover makes it tough to make sure workers are adequately educated to establish hawksbill shells after they encounter them, Heidemeyer tells Mongabay.
“Our system in customs is simply in search of weapons and medicines, not these product,” Chacón says. “I feel we have to work more durable to attempt to prepare the mail officers and the customs police to cease this stuff.”
A global downside
Specialists warn that these occasional confiscations don’t tackle the basis of the difficulty: 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 a long time, neighboring Nicaragua is a hotspot for buying and selling hawksbill merchandise.
“They aren’t 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 individuals in international locations like Guatemala, Honduras and Panama to raised acknowledge hawksbill merchandise.
Panama has proven some success in preventing again towards the commerce lately. In 2022, for example, raids at two companies within the province of Chiriquí resulted within the seizure of 199 hawksbill spurs. Native legislation enforcement additionally just 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 establish the origin of a confiscated batch of 77 cockfighting spurs made out of hawksbill shells.
Since turtles’ our bodies tackle the distinctive isotopic signature of their habitat, Seminoff and his analysis associate, 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 stunning, 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 info might assist conservationists focus their efforts on the areas with the very 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 very precious challenge 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 instructional packages in major and secondary colleges situated close to seashores the place individuals 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 essential relating to 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 approach into vacationer retailers and on-line markets worldwide.
“The habits code of vacationers [is very important], particularly relating to tropical areas — how they will create a footprint shopping for this stuff,” he says. “The factor is to coach 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 components of the turtle.”
Nonetheless, 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 just 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 impression it will have on cockfighting or turtle harvests. Cockfighting additionally stays authorized in lots of different international locations, like Colombia and Panama.
“I’m undecided if that is ever going to be eradicated till the individuals 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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