Bear Bile Trade

Figure 1: Asiatic Black Bear, which is the bear most affected by the bear bile trade. http://beartrust.org/asiatic-black-bear

Many different bear species populations are continually declining due to a variety of reasons such as habitat loss and nuisances kills (Traditional Medicine Trade, 1983).  However, one of the main reasons for this decline in bear populations is the hunting and killing of bears in order to extract their gall bladders (Cima, 2015).  Gall bladder is an organ that is connected to the liver and produces bile.  Bile is a substance which helps in digestion, and in bears it contains high amounts of urosdeoxycholic acid which helps break down cholesterol and does not allow for cholesterol to be absorbed.  For these reasons, bile is often used for medicinal reasons.  These reasons include helping with liver disease, epilepsy (Dutton et al., 2011) digestive problems and inflammation (Traditional Medicine Trade, 1983). 

It has been found that many of the known bear species (6 of the 8 bear species) are being affected by this trade (Dutton et al., 2011).  This includes American black bears, sloth bears, sun bears, and the bear that is currently the most affected is the Asiatic black bear.  All of these bears are considered threatened species (Handwerk, 2009).

The selling of bear bile generally occurs on the black market, so the trade of these products is hard to quantify and track (Traditional Medicine Trade, 1983).  Depending where the gall bladders are sold, dictates how much you get.  In the United States gall bladders are sold for about $15, however in Japan bear bile costs more than the cost of gold (Cima, 2015).  Therefore, if a poacher sells the bear bile in Japan they can get up to $153 per pound of bear bile.  Generally, the larger the gall bladder, the more money the poachers are able to get.

Figure 2: A graph showing the price per gram of bear bile compared to the price per pound for gold in Japan. http://priceonomics.com/why-is-bear-bile-so-expensive/ 

For a long while, the only way to collect this bile was for the bears to be hunted and killed outright.  However, in the 1980s certain farms were opened in order to extract bear bile without having to kill the bears (Malcolm et al., 2013).  In 2010 there was 97 farms in China alone.  Many of these farms have very poor living conditions for the bears, and many of the methods to extract the bile is very cruel and gross.

There are around 54 alternative substances that can be used for the same medicinal purposes as bear bile (Traditional Medicine Trade, 1983).  Some of these substances are rhubarb and gardenia, as well synthesized ursodeoxycholic acid from cattle.     

However, even with these alternatives, people still prefer wild bear bile.  Recent research by Dutton et al. was conducted to see which people prefer wild bear bile or farmed bear bile.  From their research it was found that many people have a preference for wild bear bile, and will in fact pay more for this bile.  Within the questionnaire that was conducted there were two main reasons why people chose the wild bile over the farmed bile.  First reason is that they “trust more expensive medicines”.  The second reason was that doctors (practitioners) seem to prescribe wild bear bile over the farmed or synthetic kind. 

Finally, poachers are continuing to trap and sell bear gall bladders, even with these farms in place.  In fact in 2015 Yunhee Kim was found guilty in multiple accounts of the trafficking of bear gall bladders (CBC News, 2015).  He was found trafficking these bear gall bladders in Merritt and Coquitlam.  Therefore, even though Asia seems to be the main problem for these bears, the trafficking is also occurring a little closer to home.

There is a few things we can do to try and help out these bears.  First thing is to educate practitioners and the general public about the alternatives to bear bile.  The other is to continue to investigate these farms further and see what good they may be doing.

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Citations:
Asiatic Black Bear. [Internet] Bear Trust International. [Cited February 23, 2016]  Available from: http://beartrust.org/asiatic-black-bear

CBC News.  [Internet] 2015.  Bear parts trafficker pleads guilty to dealing in gall baldders, paws.  [Cited February 23, 2016] Available from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bear-parts-trafficking-paws-gall-bladders-dealing-burnaby-coquitlam-merritt-1.3323157

Cima, Rosie.  [Internet] 2015.  Why is bear bile so expensive?  Priceonomics.  [Cited February 23, 2016]  Available from: http://priceonomics.com/why-is-bear-bile-so-expensive/

Dutton, Adam J.; Hepburn, Cameron; and Macdonald, David W.  [Internet] 2011.  A stated preference investigation into the Chinese demand for farmed vs. wild bear bile.  PLoS One, 6: 1-10 [Cited February 23, 2016] DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021243

Handwerk, Brian.  [Internet] 2009.  U.S. bear gallbladders gold on black market.  National Geographic News.  [Cited February 23, 2016]  Available from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090811-bear-parts-trade.html

Malcolm, K.D.; McShea, W.J.; Van Deelen, T.R.; Bacon, H.J.; Liu, F.; Putman, S.; Zhu, X.; and Brown, J.L. [Internet]  2013.  Analyses of fecal and hair glucocorticoids to evaluate short- and long-term stress and recovery of Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) removed from bile farms in China.  General and Comparative Endocrinology, 185: 97-106 [Cited February 23, 2016] DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2013.01.014

Traditional Medicine Trade.  [Internet]  Endangered Species Handbook.  [Cited February 23, 2016] Available from: http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/trade_traditional_bears.php