Balisaur à gorge blanche

Traditionally, this genus (assumed to be mostly or solely this species) is is not a popular game animal, even for subsistence, because of the strong odour and bad taste. However, in southern China other large-bodied wildlife has been wiped out to the point that hunters are shooting all wildlife they encounter. Recent field surveys in Guangxi and Guangdong provinces generated very few records of wild animals (Lau et al. 2010, M.W.N. Lau pers. comm. 2006). Elsewhere in its Chinese range it remains widespread and locally common, at least in sparsely (human-)populated areas. It is evidently not dependent on good-quality forest, with some records coming from low-intensity agricultural landscapes, although it is likely that hunting prevents occupation of a much larger area of non-forest land than is at present inhabited (Bosco P.L. Chan pers. comm. 2014).

With no identified threats across most of its range, there is no immediate need for conservation interventions specifically for this species. However, regionally, populations are extremely reduced by hunting in the southern margin of its range and without effective control of hunting it is likely to retract from this part of it range. The taxonomic composition of hog badgers in Chinese farms does not seem to be well documented, and if it is not known, should be assessed in case the various newly-recognised species are being interbred. This species occurs in many protected areas across its range, and these are probably the mainstay of populations in large parts of its range. Should the integrity of these protected areas be compromised, its Red List categorisation would warrant reconsideration: the related Greater Hog Badger has been hunted out of some of its range.