Snake charming and the exploitation of snakes in Morocco J UAN M. PLEGUEZUELOS,MÓNICA F ERICHE,JOSÉ C. BRITO and S OUMÍA F AHD Abstract Traditional activities that potentially threaten bio- also for clothing, tools, medicine and pets, as well as in diversity represent a challenge to conservationists as they try magic and religious activities (review in Alves & Rosa, to reconcile the cultural dimensions of such activities. ). Vertebrates, particularly reptiles, have frequently Quantifying the impact of traditional activities on biodiver- been used for traditional medicine. Alves et al. () iden- sity is always helpful for decision making in conservation. In tified reptile species ( families, genera) currently the case of snake charming in Morocco, the practice was in- used in traditional folk medicine, % of which are included troduced there years ago by the religious order the on the IUCN Red List (IUCN, ) and/or the CITES Aissawas, and is now an attraction in the country’s growing Appendices (CITES, ). Among the reptile species tourism industry. As a consequence wild snake populations being used for medicine, % are snakes. may be threatened by overexploitation. The focal species for Snakes have always both fascinated and repelled people, snake charming, the Egyptian cobra Naja haje, is undergo- and the reported use of snakes in magic and religious activ- ing both range and population declines. We estimated the ities is global (Alves et al., ). The sacred role of snakes level of exploitation of snakes based on field surveys and may be related to a traditional association with health and questionnaires administered to Aissawas during – eternity in some cultures (Angeletti et al., ) and many , and compared our results with those of a study con- species are under pressure from exploitation as a result ducted years previously. Aissawas use four venomous (Alves et al., ). The impact of hunting and collecting and four non-venomous species for snake charming and on snake populations has rarely been studied and remains we estimate they harvest a minimum of , individuals largely unreported (Gibbons et al., ; Klemens & annually, mostly venomous snakes. For exhibition purposes Thorbjarnarson, ), and declines in snake populations they selectively remove the largest specimens from the wild are not receiving the same level of attention as, for example, (i.e. those that could have the highest reproductive output). those in amphibians or marine turtles (Mullin & Seigel, Compared to the previous data, we detected () a reduction ). Negative effects resulting from exploitation of in the number of species collected, () an increased distance snake populations must first be assessed before appropriate to collecting fields, and () an increase in the market price conservation measures can be established for species of for snakes, after correction for accumulated inflation, signi- concern. fying a higher demand for these animals. Healers and indigenous peoples have collected wildlife for centuries but in the past harvests were relatively sustain- Keywords Aissawas, cobra, Morocco, Naja haje, Sahara, able and species survival was not threatened (Alvard et al., snake charming, tourism, unsustainable use ). Recent socio-economic-induced changes in human The supplementary material for this article can be found at populations, however, such as those related to tourism de- https://doi.org/./S velopment, long considered a clean industry with limited or no negative environmental impacts, are now affecting biodiversity (van der Duim & Caalders, ). One example of this is the population decline in snakes used in snake Introduction charming, a practice that began in Morocco c. years ago when Sidi Mohammed Ben Aissa, an Andalusian sufi, nteractions between people and wildlife have long had an founded the religious order known as the Aissawas in impact on biodiversity. Prehistoric and primitive soci- I Meknes, central Morocco (Brunel, ). eties used animals and their derivatives mainly as food but The Aissawas were healers and custodians of knowledge about the local flora and fauna. They used snakes in trad- JUAN M. PLEGUEZUELOS (Corresponding author) and MÓNICA FERICHE Department itional medicine and exhibitions in market places (souks) of Zoology, University of Granada, E-18071 Granada, Spain throughout the country, inspiring the use of snakes in spec- E-mail [email protected] tacles to attract tourists. Snakes used in such spectacles suf- JOSÉ C. BRITO Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, University of Porto, Vairão, Portugal fer from high mortality; when they show obvious signs of ill health they are disposed of and replaced by freshly caught SOUMÍA FAHD Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tétouan, Morocco individuals (Highfield & Bayley, ). In Morocco re- Received May . Revision requested June . gistered , , foreign visitors ( . % more than during Accepted August . First published online December . the previous year; Tourisme en Chiffres, ) and tourism Oryx, 2018, 52(2), 374–381 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000910 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.58, on 27 Sep 2021 at 07:32:03, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000910 Snake charming in Morocco 375 accounted for .% of the country’s gross domestic product of hunting activity towards more remote regions in the (the second highest contributor after agriculture). The Sahara desert, however, would suggest that snake hunting country plans to double the annual number of visitors by was having a negative impact on snake populations (Ministère du Tourisme du Maroc, ). If this ob- (see a similar interpretation for a mammal species in jective is achieved the Aissawas have the potential to in- Milner-Gulland & Clayton, ). Local market prices for crease their financial gain by performing their spectacles exploited species can serve as a surrogate for species popu- at more tourist sites during an extended tourist season, lation density in the wild and as a measure of sustainability and the demand for snakes will increase. in harvesting (Albrechtsen et al., ). A gradual increase Morocco has a species-rich reptilian fauna, including in a snake’s market price through time, after correction for snake species. In a national-level assessment of extinc- accumulated annual inflation, may be interpreted as a re- tion risk of amphibians and reptiles, based on IUCN criteria, flection of the increasing difficulty of harvesting in the snakes accounted for a high number of threatened species wild, and as being consistent with resource depletion (.%), with the two species commonly used for snake (Milner-Gulland & Clayton, ). charming, the Egyptian cobra Naja haje and the puff adder Bitis arietans, categorized as Vulnerable (Pleguezuelos et al., ). Despite the prevalence of snake charming in Morocco Methods there is no quantitative information regarding its overall ef- fect on the country’s snake fauna, as is generally the case in Snake charmers the search for empirical evidence of the potential effects of On six occasions during – (, (×), , human activity on the fauna of an area (Webb et al., ). , ), in spring and autumn, we searched for During – we interviewed snake charmers in Aissawas and snake charming activity in the main cities, tourist areas throughout the country, and snake hunters, a souks and tourist resorts of Morocco. Aissawas are wary distinctive group of Aissawas, in southern Morocco. Based of outsiders (Brunel, ), and therefore interviews were on the accumulated responses we estimated () the number conducted by a Moroccan member of our research group of snake charmers, the various species used, and the (SF), who speaks Arabic and Berber and was therefore better number of individual snakes they exhibited annually; () accepted by the Aissawas (Albuquerque et al., ). the number of snake hunters, the localities in which they Interviews were administered using a standardized form, were active, and the number of individuals of each species and included questions about snake provenance and price, they collected; and () market prices for the focal species, number of individuals acquired per year, and knowledge re- N. haje. Some natural history traits of snakes were compared garding the presence of other practitioners nearby between the individuals used by Aissawas and the indivi- (Supplementary Material ). The interviews were conducted duals we found during field surveys in the harvesting regions, in the interviewees’ primary environment (Albuquerque to investigate selection based on these traits by Aissawas. et al., ), and interviews with contradictory responses Some of these variables could be indicative of the effect of were eliminated from the analysis. Since the s harvesting on snake populations. Harvesting often selects Aissawas in Marrakech (the stronghold for snake charming) against traits that would normally be advantageous under have been organized into five closed groups, each consisting, natural conditions (e.g. larger body size; Sasaki et al., ). on average, of members (range –); because of the Our study replicates research on snake charming in complex relationship among snake charmers within each Morocco by the late José Antonio Valverde during group (authors, unpubl. data), data from individual snake – (Valverde, –), thus facilitating a com- charmers are not independent,