Virus could help save wild animals
China issues ban on consumption of wild animal meat
In the Mong La wildlife market, on the border of southwestern China and Myanmar’s Shan State, pangolin wine is available for purchase by the glass or bottle.
During four visits to Mong La — “the wildlife trafficking capital of the world” and hub of the pangolin poaching trade — from 2006 to 2015, researchers Vincent Nijman, Ming Xia Zhang and Chris Shepherd “observed 42 bags of scales, 32 whole skins, 16 fetuses or pangolin parts in wine, and 27 whole pangolins for sale,” they write in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation.
In their analysis of seizure data, they estimated pangolin products to be worth nearly $1 million a year when sold in Myanmar; much higher once the illicit goods crossed the border into China “where prices of pangolins and their parts have risen considerably over the last decade.” The value of trafficking wild species on the whole, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates, is roughly $20 billion each year.
Thought to be among the world’s most highly poached mammals, the shy, scaly pangolin is now in the spotlight. Researchers at the South China Agricultural University implicated the animal in the coronavirus outbreak earlier this month, pinpointing it as a potential intermediary in the virus’ jump to humans. Speculation ensued, and while “the mystery is far from solved,” as Nature reports, the negative attention could help save the endangered species.
On Monday, in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Chinese officials issued an order to ban all consumption of wild animal meat, including pangolins, peacocks, civets, turtles and badgers. If the legislation pushes past the immediate need to address the COVID-19 outbreak, it could aid in preventing the extinction of pangolins as well as other threatened animals.
“I do think the government has seen the toll it takes on (the) national economy and society is much bigger than the benefit that wild-eating business brings,” Jeff He, China director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, told AFP.
Following the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s, the Chinese government took similar steps to halt the trade of wild animals such as bats and snakes, but it didn’t last. As The Guardian reports, however, the recent ban is anticipated to come into force as part of China’s wildlife protection law at some point this year.
Pangolin meat — “dark, with a sticky, stringy texture” — is prized in parts of the world. And some claim its scales, made of keratin like human fingernails and rhinoceros horns, can treat a range of ailments — from infertility to rheumatoid arthritis. Sought after for use in traditional medicine and folk remedies, “There is no scientific evidence showing that pangolin scales are effective as a treatment,” the South China Morning Post reported in 2018.
There are eight species of pangolin on two continents — four in Africa and four in Asia — and all are considered either vulnerable or critically endangered. According to the WWF, despite being protected by an international trade law, one million is a “conservative” estimate of the number of pangolins trafficked in the past decade.
Previously this month, officials seized 9,500 kilograms of pangolin scales from shipping containers in Nigeria, which as NBC News reports, “likely represents over 20,000 animals taken from the wild.” Such shipments violate a trade ban that’s been in place since 2017, and as National Geographic reports, are only becoming more common as organized criminal networks shift their sights from ivory to pangolins.
As was the case with other coronaviruses — such as the virus that causes SARS, which is believed to have jumped to humans from civets — scientists assume COVID-19 jumped from an animal to people, but they don’t know which one. “So far, the closest match to the human coronavirus has been found in a bat in China’s Yunnan province,” Nature reports. As theorizing continues to swirl and the virus continues to spread around the world, some are viewing the outbreak as a lesson.
Peter Knights, CEO of the WildAid charity, told AFP that people should consider COVID-19 a cautionary tale — protect nature or face the consequences. “If we heed the warning not only will we protect human life but we could actually save species like pangolins,” he said. But there’s also the possibility that the inverse could occur, with people putting the onus on the animal for human health and economic ramifications.
During the SARS outbreak, Chinese authorities killed tens of thousands of civets in the name of quashing a potential virus source. Sara Platto, a professor of animal behaviour at Jianghan University in Wuhan, told Nature that she worries history could be repeated with pangolins: “The problem is not the animals, it’s that we get in contact with them.”