[Animals] After relying on it to relieve pain, this lizard is now in danger of extinction

[FNX Magokiler]

On a sunny morning in the Bolivian Andes, Victoria Flores herds llamas and alpacas through snowy wetlands and crystalline natural springs bubbling from the earth. Suddenly, an olive-colored lizard comes out of its lair.

The 15-centimeter-long reptile called jararanko ("lizard" in the indigenous Aymara language) perches on a rock, sunbathing. While he is distracted, Flores crouches down, catches him, and beats him to death with a stick.

"Sometimes the jararanko is scary: it chases you and bites you," says Flores, who is Aymara and kills the animals legally to use them in traditional medicine.

He will use the ground remains of the animal as a "lizard patch", a supposed healing method to treat muscle ailments.

Back home, he grinds his meat in a stone grinder and mixes it with wild herbs such as wichullo, black teapot and arnica, until it becomes a pasty green mass that he places on the wound. "We cure ourselves because here there is no pharmacy, no medicine, or anything like that. So we use the jararanko," he says.

But soon there may not be any lizards left either.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the Liolaemus forsteri, or Forster's tree iguana, as an endangered species, according to the Red Book of the Vertebrate Fauna of Bolivia.

 

 

In addition to its collection for use in traditional medicine, the species is also endangered by habitat loss due to mining and development.

Bolivian legislation allows indigenous nations to kill the animal for traditional medicine as long as it is used for subsistence purposes, within their ancestral territory and with practices prior to the Spanish invasion.

Bruno Miranda, biologist from the Bolivian Herpetology Researchers Network, adds that to date there is no scientific study that supports the medicinal properties of lizards.

In fact, "you can be exposed to certain infectious agents that can be harmful, or that can cause certain types of zoonotic diseases," such as salmonellosis.

"Therefore, it seems to me that these practices should be reevaluated in current times," says Miranda.

Reptiles on the black market
Jararanko as an ingredient in traditional Andean medicine has deep roots, dating back to pre-Columbian times.

"We learned it from my grandfather. When we hurt ourselves, he cured us like this," says Flores, who today uses this same practice, called zootherapy, with his children.

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.es/animales/2023/10/lagarto-esencial-aliviar-dolor-ahora-peligro-de-extincion-bolivia