Pangolins’ survival in focus at Cites meet
More than a million of these shy mammals believed to have been poached from the wild in the past decade
Reclusive, gentle and quick to roll up into a ball, pangolins keep a low profile.
But they are also the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal, and experts at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference this week are ringing alarm bells over their survival.
Demand for pangolin meat and body parts has fuelled a bloodbath, and driven the scale-covered, ant-eating mammal towards extinction.
More than a million pangolins are believed to have been poached from the wild in the past decade.
Most are used to supply demand in China and Vietnam, where they are regarded as a delicacy and an ingredient in traditional medicine.
At the Cites meeting in Johannesburg, conservationists will discuss moving pangolins into the highest protection category, which bans all international trade.
“The pangolin today is regarded as the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world,” Cites chief John Scanlon said.
“There has been a massive surge in the illegal take of the pangolin for its meat and for its scales.”
Currently, Cites allows for trade in pangolins but under strict conditions.
“Existing laws are clearly failing to protect pangolins from the poachers. A complete international trade ban is needed now,” Heather Sohl, WWF-UK’s wildlife adviser, said.
Four species
There are four species of pangolin in Africa and four in Asia.
Watchdogs say those in Asia are being eaten to extinction, while populations in Africa are declining fast.
Research published in the early 2000s estimated populations in China to have declined by up to 94 per cent, said Dan Challender, pangolin expert at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Pangolins are covered in overlapping scales, and have pink, sticky tongues almost as long as their bodies.
When physically threatened, they curl into ball, making it easy for them to be picked up by hunters and put into a sack.