Chinese Frog Hunters Poison Rivers

By Anatoly Medetsky

From countless frogs to endangered leopards, wildlife in the Russian
Far East has fallen prey to the proximity of China, whose population
believes in the healing powers and culinary delicacies of certain wild
plants and animals.

But scores of poachers crossing over from China to sweep Russian
forests, rivers and sea bays have also begun to pose a health threat
for local residents, ecologists say.

In one of the most recent developments poachers have taken to
poisoning rivers on the Russian side of the border, which gives them
quick and easy access to numerous dead frogs, says Pavel Fomenko, a
biodiversity programs coordinator for the international environmental
group WWF.

Contaminated water then drifts downstream endangering anyone who would
drink from the river. According to Fomenko, two forest rangers
reported recently that they passed blood in their stools after they
used such water to make tea.

About 10 other rivers in the area around Vladivostok have been
contaminated by such practices that continued throughout this past
winter, Fomenko says. Frogs are considered a delicacy in China.

Another brutal way of catching frogs is electrocution. According to
police reports, Chinese poachers are often caught carrying electricity
generators and two electrodes that they stick into the water. Last
year, customs agents seized 129 kilograms of dried frogs at the
border, which means that tens of thousands of these creatures had been
killed.

"This is ecological terrorism," Fomenko exclaims describing the
Chinese influence on the regional wildlife.

Sometimes poachers threaten as much as regional biodiversity because
their targets include endangered Siberian tigers and leopards. Police
confiscated three leopard hides from Russians last year and
environmentalists maintain that the leopards were killed on contracts
with Chinese.

The Far Eastern leopard is facing extinction, with only about 30
specimens left in the wild and any killing may prove critical. Leopard
and tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

The Chinese are interested in a surprisingly wide range of things such
as bear paws, ginseng or deer penises, depending on what is in demand
in China in a particular year, Fomenko says. Apart from frogs, paws of
Himalayan bears have been a hit lately, and customs agents seized 190
of them last year. Seizures of animal penises peaked in 1993 when a
total of 731 deer and fur seal penises were confiscated at the
border.

Eager to collect evidence, agents of the Federal Border Guard Service
put up an ambush and filmed two Chinese pouring herbicides into a
shallow river late last year. Minutes later dozens of frogs came belly
up and one of the Chinese, clad in a khaki jacket and high rubber
boots, walked about in the water stuffing them into a plastic bag.

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