Andean 'Viagra': Peru seizes hundreds of frogs used as aphrodisiacs September 8, 2024

A photo distributed on September 5, 2024, by Peru's National Forestry and Wildlife Service shows an official holding part of a cargo of 390 dissected Lake Titicaca frogs (Telmatobius coleus), seized in the Peruvian region of Puno, near Bolivia (HANDOUT)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Andean 'Viagra': Peru seizes hundreds of frogs used as aphrodisiacs

Peruvian authorities said on Thursday that they had seized hundreds of endangered frogs from Lake Titicaca that had been illegally captured to be used for their supposed aphrodisiac properties.

The National Forestry and Wildlife Service said it found 390 frogs in a cardboard box inside a truck in the Puno region, on the shores of the huge lake, which lies 3,810 meters above sea level in the Andes on Peru's border with Bolivia.

The shipment was bound for the Peruvian capital, Lima, where frogs are widely used in traditional medicine, as well as in dishes that stimulate customers' sexual desire.

Some traditional healers make a potion with frog extract that they call the “Viagra of the Incas”, in homage to the civilization that ruled a vast South American empire in the 15th and 16th centuries.

The potion is also said to have a wide range of medicinal properties.

The Lake Titicaca frog (Telmatobius coleus), one of the largest aquatic frog species in the world, is native to Peru and part of Bolivia.

In the last 15 years, the frog population on Peru's endangered species list has declined by around 80% due to trafficking, climate change, and pollution.

Wildlife trafficking is a crime punishable by fines of more than US$14,500 in Peru, more than 50 times the monthly minimum wage.

cm/cb/nro