Will the sun set on poaching and rise on a better day for salamanders? 

If the number of poachers decreased the Chinese Giant Salamander would actually be thriving. They are considered a renewable resource in the wild since they reproduce at a rapid rate. When it comes time for females to lay their eggs, they lay approximately 500 eggs (Wikipedia Contributors, 2019). Their species should not be extinct because of this, however, when we overuse this “renewable resource” it becomes a tragedy of the commons situation. When individual users behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting the shared resource, is when this situation occurs (Investopedia, 2019). The tragedy of the commons isn't the only thing keeping them from maintaining their name as a “renewable species”. There are five different types of Chinese giant salamanders in the wild, but when they are put into farms, they are then clumped into one hybridized population. “The farms are driving the extinction of most of the species by homogenizing them,” said Robert Murphy, a co-author and senior curator of herpetology at the Royal Ontario Museum. “We’re losing genetic diversity and adaptations that have been evolving for millions of years.” (New York Times, 2018). If the salamanders are released after being held captive, they lose their adaptation to the environment. There are around 7 different types of Chinese giant salamander species that all fall under the name Andrias Davidianus. When farmers poached them to be brought into farms, they had no idea that they were bringing in one alike species, but actually, they were bringing in the same species who had different traits. So since these salamanders were all brought together, they began to breed in captivity. Their offspring were introduced into the world as "hybrids". They were all part of the same species but many of the salamanders had unique characteristics that separated them from the others. The new hybrids might also change the genetic makeup of locally adapted wild animals. “The most depressing thing of all is that salamanders nowadays have originated in farms, meaning they are no longer genetically pure. This prevents them from being released into the wild and with that, reproducing to keep their species alive. A quote from Rachel Nuwer supports this idea, Giant salamanders released recently into the wild are genetically distinct from those that evolved there, a man-made “species” (New York Times, 2028).