I remember a National Geographic article several years ago about the declining numbers of black bears in and around the Smokies. Seems as if the Chinese shaman had convinced the locals to kill them for two things - their gall bladder to make some sort of Spanish fly and their paws to make some sort of soup. Let’s say they were paid something like $200 here for the wares and by the time it got to China, it was worth like $20,000. Kind of like the ivory trade.
That was the early 1990’s. I killed a charging black bear at my house in Wasilla, AK in May 1991. I told a USAF friend whose wife was Thai and he offered me $250 for the gall bladder. I was told it was used to make an aphrodisiac. Asians have strange beliefs.