If superstition rhymes with extinction

It isn’t true, however I consider it: like this Peppino De Filippo he distilled within the title of his well-known comedy the profound mechanisms of superstition. What higher day to speak about superstition than Friday the seventeenth? The Cicap (Italian Committee for the Management of Claims on Pseudoscience, based by Piero Angela) celebrates this yr, in collaboration with WWFthe Anti-Superstition Day.

And it does so with a file revealed in its official journal, Questionwith dozens of public occasions all through Italy, and with a nationwide convention (scheduled for Friday 17 Might at 3pm within the Sala dei Lecci of the Bioparco of Rome) devoted to the hyperlink between superstitions, animal species in danger and lack of biodiversity.

“Countering anti-scientific considering is a ‘mission’ that WWF and Cicap, every in their very own area of essential curiosity, have at all times carried out – underlines Sergio Della Sala, president of Cicap – Amongst many beliefs that hurt animals, superstition is sort of a weapon of mass destruction.”

Unhealthy luck is dangerous, particularly for animals

From the plain black cat to the birds of in poor health omen (owls and owls within the lead) as much as the anteater or the scops owl he wrote about Giovanni Pascoli, superstition involving animals has no boundaries (neither geographical nor species) and its traces date again over the centuries. “The idea that owls herald dying has been reported for the reason that Hieroglyphica of the Renaissance author Piero Valerio: listening to the tune of an owl was thought-about since historical instances because the announcement of a dying within the household,” he says Sofia Lincos in his documented article on Question.

And the antidote to those presumed evil influences was not restricted (and, apparently, remains to be not restricted right this moment) to touching wooden or performing different apotropaic gestures, however requires, in response to the superstitious, to crucify the owl on the doorposts of the barns .

One other non-human jinx could be theaye-aye, a nocturnal primate that evolution has endowed with a center finger that’s longer than the others: a finger used to stockpile larvae and bugs, however which in lots of areas of Madagascar is taken into account the device with which the animal can kill solely by pointing it on the unlucky human. And even on this case the answer, along with particular rites, is to hold the lifeless physique of the monkey on a pole alongside the aspect of the street.

In his research devoted to superstitions about anteaterswhich in Brazil I’m the alter ego of our black cat, the biologist Mariana Catapani has demonstrated that on the foundation of those false beliefs there’s, as usually occurs in different areas, the little information of the life of those animals: superstition works the place information doesn’t attain.

Unhealthy luck brings good luck

If evil animals danger their lives, it’s no completely different to those that, quite the opposite, are thought-about evil good luck. In AsiaFor instance, the genitals of feminine hyenas are used to make love potions and magical talismans. The venom of the Phyllomedusa bicolor, an Amazonian tree frog, is utilized in shamanic rites which even have a sure following within the West (though on the danger of serious adverse results on the shaman).

However, past luck, on the whole, false beliefs can create main issues for species and ecosystems. From the tarantula, whose chunk (virtually innocent) in Puglia was linked in previous centuries to a horrible illness; to the eagles that will kidnap youngsters, it was believed, to feed them to their younger (with the ensuing searching journeys); as much as the spy animals used (this time lately) by the US towards Iran or Russia. From the tiger, whose bones macerated in alcohol are one of many many cures of conventional Chinese language drugs (towards arthritis and rheumatism) to shark cartilage: “It’s nonetheless attainable to buy dietary supplements primarily based on shark cartilage, thought-about an anticancer drug,” he writes once more Sofia Lincos.

“The checklist of animals persecuted as a result of prejudices and anti-scientific beliefs could be very lengthy. For that reason, now we have joined forces with Cicap to dispel all these false mixes on Anti-Superstition Day”, the phrases of Luciano Di Tizio, president of WWF Italy. “Superstition is opposite to science and harmful not just for the numerous, too many, animal species that pay the implications of absurd beliefs, however it additionally has severe penalties on our well being. Killing animals unnecessarily or torturing them, within the hope, supported by false beliefs and faux information, of enhancing our situation, is a phenomenon not solely to not be fueled however to be condemned and countered with essential considering, primarily based on verified scientific knowledge”.

Not solely do they weigh on the dangerous destiny of animals alleged well being advantagesbut additionally rites which are presupposed to have magical results: the ritual use of some species, actually, may even have adverse results on complete ecosystems, as a result of introduction of alien species. A seemingly innocent instance informed above Question it’s that of the enormous snails: 20 centimeters lengthy, one of many 100 most invasive species on this planet, they arrived in Florida within the Nineteen Sixties, have been laboriously eradicated, then reappeared in 2011 reported by the practitioner of a divination system of African origin. A brand new try to remove these slugs follows, which lasted a decade and value roughly 23 million {dollars}: unsuccessful try.

“Unlawful markets are enriched, injury is created to the ecosystem and plenty of species are pushed in direction of extinction, all this simply to suggest magical cures not supported by any proof that demonstrates any healing utility”, the remark of Sergio Della Sala.