Extinctions In Near Time: Biodiversity Loss Since The Pleistocene

Hi everyone, my name is Isabel Cardenas and I’ll be talking about the market for bear bile and what it means to farmed bears, wild bears, and North American bears. In parts of Asia, drinking bear bile is a traditional remedy to cure intestinal and heart illnesses1. This has created an enormous market for fresh bear bile. Poachers have decimated the populations of Asiatic black and brown bears to satisfy the demand. As a result, bear farms emerged throughout Asia so that profiteers have a constant source. The market for bile has had extensive consequences for bears in farms, wild Asian bears, and now wild bears in North America. My name is Isabel Cardenas and I would like to tell you about how the demand for bear bile is threatening bears around the world. Today’s demand for bear bile is large enough to warrant the captivity of twelve thousand bears on farms in China, Vietnam, and Korea5. Typically, Asiatic black bears and brown bears are captive on these farms1. On bear farms, a tube extracts bile f