11年後のレッドリスト｜オオアリクイ：焼かれた土地、売られる未来【IUCNレッドリスト比較】

Hi, it’s 鶏人｜Keijin.

Today, I’m sharing a story about “the reason fires are set,” a lesson I learned from the Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla).

Back in the 2014 encyclopedia, they were listed as “VU: Vulnerable” because their grassland habitats were constantly at risk of catching fire, whether naturally or by human hands.

Looking at the latest IUCN Red List, it brings up the massive wildfires that broke out in 2020 and 2024, yet their status remains unchanged at “VU: Vulnerable.”

So, I feel like Giant Anteaters are still trapped in a reality that you could describe as “scorched earth, a sold-off future.”

This is a quick 5-minute read. I hope you’ll stick with me to the end.

特徴

• 名前の由来：種小名 tridactyla は「3本指（3つの指）」に由来し、前肢の大きな3本のツメが象徴的である。
• 見た目：細長い鼻先（吻）と、斜めに入る黒白の肩帯、長くふさふさした尾が目立つ。
• 食べ方のクセ：歯がなく、細長い舌と粘着性の唾液でアリやシロアリを絡め取るタイプ。
• 足の使い方：鋭いツメを守るため、手のひら全体ではなく“こぶし（ナックル）”に体重を乗せる歩き方をする。
• 保全状況：IUCNでは VU（危急）。2024年に評価され、2025年に公表された記録になっている。

生態など

• 生息環境：森の中だけではなく、サバンナや草地、湿地など幅広い環境を使うが、広い行動圏が必要で、森林パッチの存在が生存に重要だとされる。
• 食べもの：主にアリ・シロアリなどの昆虫（ほか甲虫類や幼虫なども）。水分は濡れた植物を舐めて補うことがある。
• ふえ方（繁殖）：ふだんは単独性が強い。妊娠期間は約190日で、通常は1回に1頭の子を産み、子は母親の背中にしがみついて移動する。
• 活動：地域や条件で昼行性・夜行性が変わる。休息時間が長く、ねぐらは決まった巣穴を持たず放棄された穴などを使うことがある。
• 脅威：生息地の消失・劣化、道路での轢死、野火（山火事）による死亡、狩猟などが主要因として挙げられ、少なくとも過去10年で30％以上の減少が見積もられる根拠に含まれている。

出典

• IUCN Red List（PDF/DOI）
• University of Kansas CLACS｜Giant Ant Eater
• San Francisco Zoo & Gardens｜Giant Anteater

出典

• Anteaters & Highways
• Reuters（2024年パンタナール火災の状況報道）
• IUCN Red List（オオアリクイ評価ページ・引用情報）
• FAPESP Agência（2020年パンタナール火災の影響推定に関する研究紹介）
• World Weather Attribution（2024年パンタナール火災の火災気象条件が40%強まった整理）

出典

• CITES（付属書掲載PDF 2025-02-07）：E-Appendices-2025-02-07
• 保全プロジェクト例：Giant Anteater Conservation Program（ICAS）
• 論文（脅威の整理）：Threats to and viability of the giant anteater…（SciELO）
• Species+（UNEP-WCMC Species+）：Myrmecophaga tridactyla（CITES掲載情報）
• 論文（ロードキル対策の費用対効果）：Preventing wildlife roadkill can offset…（Biological Conservation）

Questioner: “It mentioned that ‘natural fires and intentional burns are increasingly triggering massive, uncontrollable wildfires.’ I figure the natural ones are happening more often because climate change is drying everything out so much.

But regarding the ‘intentional burns’… isn’t that basically the same thing we have here in Japan? Like burning the weeds along rice paddy ridges, or setting fire to open fields—people call it different things depending on the region, like doteyaki or nobiyaki.

Though I’m pretty sure that kind of thing is mostly banned in Japan now, right?”

Me: “Yeah, you don’t really see it anymore, even out here in the countryside where I live. I think it used to be a traditional way to get rid of pests without using chemicals… but I’ll have to look into that a bit more to be sure.”

出典

• 日本の自治体例（煙・臭い等の苦情と野外焼却の扱い）紀の川市
• 内閣府 政府広報オンライン 公害苦情相談窓口（悪臭・煙などの相談先）
• 南米の火入れと農業（牧畜・大豆など）と火の関連（背景説明）Mongabay
• 埼玉県 野外焼却（野焼き）と例外、苦情がある場合は「軽微」扱いにならない
• 南米の土地開拓での焼畑が制御不能になり得る点（背景説明）The Japan Times
• 下野新聞（論説）あぜ道の野焼きの防除効果は限定的という見方、法の原則禁止と例外
• 栃木県（大田原市ページ経由）病害虫防除目的の野火焼き（畦畔焼き）への注意喚起と代替策
• 環境省（PDF）野外焼却に関する例外規定と「生活環境への影響が軽微」前提（通知・照会文脈）
• オオアリクイの脅威要因として火災等に触れる二次情報（IUCN参照としての整理）World Land Trust

Questioner: “So even though we use the same word for ‘intentional burns,’ the scale and the whole mindset behind them are completely different. My impression is that they’re still clinging to these old land-clearing methods that prioritize economic efficiency, even though climate change has made everything incredibly dry—and now it’s just spiraling out of control. It really feels like the root causes here are weak government policies and deep-seated poverty…”

Me: “True, we did see mentions of fire being the easiest and cheapest option for them. I’ll dig a little deeper into that specific angle.”

出典

• The Guardian（環境予算削減の報道）
• FAO（熱帯土壌の養分循環と焼畑の背景）
• Silva Fennica（数年で収量低下→移動の整理）
• CIFOR（Hamburger Connection の研究PDF）
• Mongabay（環境機関の予算削減・弱体化の指摘）
• Wiley（slash-and-burn 後の収量低下の目安など）
• Wilson Center（Amazon Fund 再稼働などの動き）
• Reuters（2024年：森林減少の減少傾向と政策の説明）
• Reuters（2019年：IBAMAの執行力・人員に関する報道）
• 世界銀行（slash-and-burn と貧困、火の制御が難しい理由）
• ScienceDirect（小規模農家が火に依存、機械化支援の文脈）
• WWF（牧畜・大豆と森林減少、ハンバーガー・コネクション文脈）
• 世界銀行 Inspection Panel（grilagem を含む土地権利偽装の指摘）
• Reuters（牛肉サプライチェーンと森林減少の関係、IBAMAの摘発例）
• Thomson Reuters Foundation（grilagem の由来と土地偽装の説明）
• Reuters（2024年：火災とIBAMA予算の指摘、火の多くは人為とする整理）
• NASA Earth Observatory（森林を農地へ、意図した火が周辺林へ広がる説明）
• Harvard International Law Journal（公有地の占拠→焼く→偽造→転売という典型パターンの整理）

Questioner: “It’s not just the heartbreaking reality of people using fire because they’re too poor to afford machinery. It sounds like there’s some kind of organized land speculation going on—like, ‘burn down the forest, clear the land, and flip it for a higher price.’ I might get yelled at for saying the government is in on it, but you can’t help but suspect something shady is happening behind the scenes.”

Me: “Honestly, if someone realizes, ‘I can feed my family just by setting the forest on fire,’ I can’t completely blame them for wanting to do it. The real issue is the system that creates that ‘reason to burn’ in the first place, exploiting impoverished people to do the dirty work.

And the biggest problem of all—the one we all want to look away from—is what I put in the table earlier. ‘Behind the fires is a massive, cross-border demand. (The ashes of those burned forests become the very land used to produce beef and feed soybeans for the global market, including Japan. Our demand for cheap meat is the root cause driving the pressure to burn forests and expand farmland over there.)'”

Questioner: “So basically, what they’re growing on that scorched earth is mainly beef and soybeans for livestock feed, right? And when you look at Japan, even though our food self-sufficiency rate by production value sometimes hits around 61%, we still heavily rely on imports for animal feed. I’ve even heard that our self-sufficiency rate for concentrated feed is only about 13%.”

Me: “Exactly. This means that even if a cow or pig is raised right here in Japan, if its feed is mostly imported, we’re essentially outsourcing that environmental burden to other countries. And a chunk of that imported feed is grown on the ashes of those burned forests.

It might be a slightly different context, but think about how fish is sold these days—mostly as pre-cut fillets. They even take the bones out, so people eat it without ever knowing what the actual fish looked like. Sometimes it feels less like we’re choosing what to eat, and more like we’re just blindly consuming what’s handed to us.

I think the exact same thing is happening with beef and pork. Especially once it’s processed into a hamburger, no normal person is going to bite into it and picture a scorched, ancient forest behind it.”

Questioner: “Yeah, and it’s not like corporations are going to go out of their way to advertise, ‘Hey, this burger was made by burning down a virgin forest,’ either.”

Me: “Exactly. Seriously though, if we lose any more of these ancient forests, the Earth’s balance is going to completely collapse. I’m genuinely terrified that we won’t just be dealing with climate change anymore—we’ll be looking at full-blown climate chaos and riots.”

Thank you so much for giving me five minutes of your valuable time. I truly hope those five minutes find their way to the giant anteater.

鶏人｜Keijin