BACKGROUND Animals from various taxonomic groups are commonly used in folk medicine, and their selection seems to be directly linked to their availability and accessibility. In the present study, we analyzed the use of animals as a source of folk medicines in a community in northeastern Brazil with access to aquatic and terrestrial animals. We hypothesize that the medicinal fauna is well represented by species of both habitat types. METHODS For the collection of information, semi-structured questionnaires were applied to local residents. RESULTS We recorded the use of 22 animals used as medicinal resources in the community, distributed among eight taxonomic categories, which are used to treat 38 types of diseases. Of the therapeutic animals, 14 species are terrestrial and 8 species can be considered aquatic occurring in marine or estuarine habitats. CONCLUSIONS Our data confirm the tendency of human communities to use affordable medicinal animals in local ecosystems. We also found that medicinal use represents a strategy of optimizing the use of resources and is related to the economic, historical, social, cultural, and ecological contexts in which the community is inserted.

中文翻译：

---

环境对药用动物选择的影响：巴西东北部的一个案例研究。

背景技术来自各种分类学组的动物通常用于民间医学中，并且它们的选择似乎与它们的可获得性和可及性直接相关。在本研究中，我们分析了在巴西东北部一个社区中可以使用水生动物和陆生动物的情况，将动物作为民间药物的来源。我们假设两种栖息地类型的物种都很好地代表了药用动物区系。方法为了收集信息，对当地居民使用了半结构化问卷。结果我们记录了22种动物作为社区医学资源的使用情况，这些动物分布在8个分类学类别中，用于治疗38种疾病。在治疗动物中，陆地上有14种，在海洋或河口栖息地中有8种被认为是水生生物。结论我们的数据证实了人类社区在当地生态系统中使用负担得起的药用动物的趋势。我们还发现，药用代表了一种优化资源利用的策略，并且与插入社区的经济，历史，社会，文化和生态环境有关。