A live spider in Skun, Cambodia, 14 Mar 2009By Rory Byrne
Voice of America
Skun, Cambodia
22 April 2009
Giant spiders might not look appetizing, but in Cambodia they are considered a delicacy. First eaten by starving refugees during the Khmer Rouge era in the late 1970s, they are now a popular snack in Cambodia. They are so popular their numbers are now in decline.
People travel from all over Cambodia to the town of Skun, north of the capital Phnom Penh, to eat giant spiders.
Black, hairy and about the size of your palm, they build their nests in the forests around the small town. Every day thousands are sold in the town's big spider market.
Fried in garlic and herbs, the spiders are piled high on wooden trays and sold to passing motorists.
Giant spiders are an important source of income for this poor farming community. In an area where most people earn about $1 a day, each spider costs about 50 cents. But despite their high cost, many Cambodians are reluctant to give up their favorite treat.
Spider catcher Youk Sambath says that nothing tastes as good as spider meat.
He says it is so delicious - it tastes a lot like fish, but also crunchy like a crab.
As well as being eaten, spiders are marinated in rice wine, which is sold as a healthy tonic.
Local farmer Yeam Soun says spider wine is good for your health:
He says when he drinks spider wine it makes his muscles feel better and his blood run well, and besides that, he says, he just loves the taste.
Local historian Tek Nem says the taste for spiders began during the Pol Pot regime when they were eaten by starving refugees:
He says that at that time there was little to eat and people survived on two cups of watery soup a day. So, he says, they began to eat things like geckos, scorpions and giant spiders and that is when they discovered how good they taste.
Spiders have become so popular in Cambodia that some fear that they could be hunted to extinction. Although exact figures on the spider population are unclear, local sellers confirm their numbers are in sharp decline.
Spider seller Ni Chanmom blames farmers for destroying the spider's nests:
She says that there were a lot of spiders until farmers began to cut and burn the forest where the spiders build their nests. She says that when that happened the spiders ran away and nobody knows where they went.
With over-hunting and slash and burn agriculture continuing to accelerate, there are concerns that Cambodia's giant spiders could be wiped out altogether.
Without urgent measures to protect them, Cambodia's favorite treat could become a thing of the past.
People travel from all over Cambodia to the town of Skun, north of the capital Phnom Penh, to eat giant spiders.
Black, hairy and about the size of your palm, they build their nests in the forests around the small town. Every day thousands are sold in the town's big spider market.
Fried in garlic and herbs, the spiders are piled high on wooden trays and sold to passing motorists.
Giant spiders are an important source of income for this poor farming community. In an area where most people earn about $1 a day, each spider costs about 50 cents. But despite their high cost, many Cambodians are reluctant to give up their favorite treat.
Spider catcher Youk Sambath says that nothing tastes as good as spider meat.
He says it is so delicious - it tastes a lot like fish, but also crunchy like a crab.
As well as being eaten, spiders are marinated in rice wine, which is sold as a healthy tonic.
Local farmer Yeam Soun says spider wine is good for your health:
He says when he drinks spider wine it makes his muscles feel better and his blood run well, and besides that, he says, he just loves the taste.
Local historian Tek Nem says the taste for spiders began during the Pol Pot regime when they were eaten by starving refugees:
He says that at that time there was little to eat and people survived on two cups of watery soup a day. So, he says, they began to eat things like geckos, scorpions and giant spiders and that is when they discovered how good they taste.
Spiders have become so popular in Cambodia that some fear that they could be hunted to extinction. Although exact figures on the spider population are unclear, local sellers confirm their numbers are in sharp decline.
Spider seller Ni Chanmom blames farmers for destroying the spider's nests:
She says that there were a lot of spiders until farmers began to cut and burn the forest where the spiders build their nests. She says that when that happened the spiders ran away and nobody knows where they went.
With over-hunting and slash and burn agriculture continuing to accelerate, there are concerns that Cambodia's giant spiders could be wiped out altogether.
Without urgent measures to protect them, Cambodia's favorite treat could become a thing of the past.
3 comments:
it's under threat only if people don't take care to make sure tarantula can have a suitable place or natural environment for them to reproduce. why not create or maintain a sustainable environment for them to reproduce so people can continue to reap them for consumption and so on. same concept as having a chicken or poultry farm to raise animals for consumption. why not do the same with tarantula and so on? plus, tarantula when they reproduce, they are reproducing in the millions as one pair can reproduce hundreds of new tarantula. unless people don't take proper action to make it safe for them to reproduce, then of course, we all should worry; otherwise, if we plan and provide a safe time zone like that of a hunting season only and other time no hunting season, then that will give tarantula times to reproduce adequately so all can harvest them for consumption. it's call solving the problem, and it's not that hard to do, really if we think about it thoroughly. thank you and god bless cambodia.
same concept for fish stock. no fishing during pawning season but open fishing during time of plentiful. same can be apply to tarantula, you know. they do it all over the world too. take in africa for example, there are hunting season and no hunting season, otherwise, the animals will be over populated if no control. same concept should be used in cambodia for tarantula, fish, and other animals. god bless cambodia.
Under international agreements such as UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol or REDD (to be decided), managing forest resource for ecotourism and other ecosystem services is even better than managing it for timber production alone.
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