Natalie Heng The Star 23 Jul 13;
Wild wonders : Tokay geckos were the subject of an elaborate hoax that fooled gullible consumers into parting with thousands of dollars in the belief that the reptile could cure cancer and AIDS.
Yet another wild creature sought after as traditional medicine.
MONEY does not fall from trees, but just a few years ago, the arboreal tokay gecko was as good as gold for opportunists looking to make a quick buck.
It all began with the belief that an enzyme from the reptile’s saliva could cure AIDS, cancer and even the H1N1 influenza.
The web exploded with a mad scramble of posts, chat-threads and forums featuring discussions on the lucrative gains to be made from selling tokay geckos. Internet postings advertised stocks, catering to a surge in demand from gullible consumers based mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.
If the banter was to be believed, tokay geckos were going for anything between a few thousand to a few million ringgit. When the trade was investigated by wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, it appeared that much of the online hype was hot air: none of the surveyed dealers advertising tokay geckos for sale online appeared to be actually selling them.
Was this a widespread Internet scam? Authors of the report The Trade in Tokay Geckos (Gekko gecko) In South-East Asia: With A Case Study On Novel Medicinal Claims In Peninsular Malaysia think so. They say their findings support claims by private dealers who said this was the case.
Tokay geckos were worth no more than US$25 (RM76) on the international pet trade but in late 2009, authorities all over South-East Asia began seizing illegally-trafficked live specimens. Newspapers abounded with reports that catching or farming the critters had become a new and lucrative side business for villagers.
Traffic’s investigations uncovered pockets of dealers, mainly scattered across the states of Kedah and Kelantan, who attested to transactions worth tens of thousands of ringgit per gecko. One dealer claimed that during the peak of the trade (2009 to 2011), he was selling 100 geckos a week to consumers in Singapore, Malaysia, and even Europe, as a cancer treatment. He charged RM19,000 per gecko. He also highlighted the potentially violent nature of the trade – hold-ups and robberies during deals were a real risk. He said that the syndicate which he used to work for had lost over RM100,000 to dodgy Thai and Laotian dealers.
Greed seems to have given rise to enterprising claims, coupled with ever-more ambitious prices. It was also rumoured that the larger geckos, those weighing 400g or above, produce “an enzyme” that could cure AIDS. These are said to be worth over RM3mil each. One dealer alluded to cheats injecting silicon or force-feeding the geckos with metal pieces, in order to achieve the higher weight. Researchers are doubtful that tokay geckos can naturally reach that size.
Traffic found nothing to support the credibility of the claims. What it did find was a huge inconsistency in prices. Some traders priced their geckos at RM580 and others, at RM50,000. This points to the lack of any real or established market value for the “commodity”, further supporting the theory that there is no such value, and that it all began as a hoax.
Geckos traded for novel medicinal claims appeared to have been collected from the wild in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, and transported overland to Malaysia. One news report detailed how over 1,000 tokay geckos were discovered in the trunk of a car.
Fortunately, the heyday of the gecko miracle cure has died down. “Such trade has been substantial, but it has declined massively,” the Traffic report concluded. The medicinal claims are unfounded – a tokay gecko is just a colourful lizard and, as of 2011, a protected species in Malaysia, requiring a licence for trade and possession, thanks to its inclusion under the new Wildlife Conservation Act 2010.
During the course of the study funded by WWF-Malaysia and Wildlife Reserves Singapore, Traffic uncovered a larger concern: the colossal international trade in tokay geckos for traditional medicine. Although localised population declines (in Bangladesh) are thought to have resulted from the trade in tokay geckos for novel medicinal claims, on a regional scale, the number of animals removed from the wild for this purpose appears to be relatively small. Given the wide range and abundance of the species, the trade for novel medicinal claims is unlikely to pose any serious threat to wild populations.
Tokay geckos have long been traded for traditional medicine. An estimated 15 million dried tokay geckos have been imported into Taiwan since 2004, 71% of which were legally sourced from Thailand, and the rest from Java, Indonesia. In 2011, a shipment of 1.2 million illegally harvested tokay geckos were intercepted from Java en route to Hong Kong. Unlike the novel medicinal claims trade which is mainly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, the trade for traditional medicine in East Asian countries, such as China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Taiwan, is huge.
Tokay geckos are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat skin ailments, asthma, diabetes and cancer. Recently, clinical tests on mice have shown that derivatives from tokay geckos have anti-tumour properties. However, experts have criticised the study for featuring poorly- designed controls, insufficient sample sizes, transferring results based on one species (Gekko japonicas) to another (the tokay gecko or Gecko gecko).
The World Health Organisation has stated that there is no scientific evidence that geckos can cure AIDS or cancer, and no information on the safety of exposure to geckos.
And yet, the trade seems to be booming. Though widely considered a common species, few population studies have actually been done on the tokay gecko, which has a striking appearance, being blue-grey in colour, with spots ranging from reddish-orange to whitish-yellow. Its conservation status has not been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Of the few studies that have been done, however, their numbers have generally been found to be declining. This is the case in Java, Indonesia and north-eastern Thailand, and in the past, mainland China. In Nepal, they are considered rare and in Vietnam, they are listed as a threatened species. Their status remains undocumented in other states.
Though breeding facilities are said to exist, it is thought that virtually all trade is supplied from animals harvested from the wild. There are hundreds of such facilities in southern China, and some in Vietnam. However, such farms are unable to meet the demand from the traditional Chinese medicine sector.
In Java, where there are at least two registered breeders and exporters, dealers have voiced their scepticism as to whether the breeding facilities are genuine. Tokay geckos fetch US$1 (RM3) each. Dealers think such a low sale price would make captive breeding financially unfeasible.
Traffic thinks that the current situation warrants the inclusion of tokay gecko in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). This listing permits trade as long as it does not harm wild populations and the animals have been legally obtained, and possess appropriate export permits.
Despite the fact that tokay geckos have a large geographical distribution and high reproductive rates, and can thrive in human-dominated environments, populations are still susceptible to over-harvesting, says Traffic.
“This is evidenced by the declines of wild populations in Thailand and Java, as well as the past deterioration in mainland China, as a result of trade for traditional medicines.”
More research is needed to quantify the extent of trade and the volume of tokay geckos harvested from the wild. That way, harvests can be monitored and modified, depending on population trends.
