THE PANGOLIN AND THE DARK WORLD OF TRAFFICKING
AN EXCLUSIVE FIVE-PART INVESTIGATION BY R. AGE
Hidden in the shadows, there is an underground economy that smuggles pangolins to faraway lands, where this shy ‘anteater’ is used in traditional medicine and served as a status-symbol delicacy. In a five-part print series, R.AGE tells the story of an illegal trade so rampant it is driving the pangolin to extinction.
RAYMOND the pangolin is curled up on the edge of the forest, still as a stone on the ground. Just beyond him, the nighttime forest is alive with insect song. We thought he would like this new home we have chosen for him, along with the darkness of the night he is so fond of.
But Raymond remains unmoving, and we do not blame him.
Just 24 hours ago, R.AGE undercover journalists, working together with Perhilitan (Wildlife and National Parks Department) enforcement officers, had rescued him from an online wildlife trader after a harrowing journey across Peninsular Malaysia cooped up in a plastic storage box, in the luggage compartment of an express bus.
So we wait in the pitch darkness, as motionless as Raymond.
Read how R.AGE journalists rescued Raymond the pangolin from an online wildlife trader in the News section.
The most trafficked mammal in the world
Raymond is a pangolin, a shy, nocturnal mammal whose body is covered in scales. When threatened, pangolins curl up into a tight ball, with the scales forming an armour that is impenetrable, even by lions.
But these same scales are what make it a target for its only known predator: humans.
According to traditional Chinese medicine principles, the scales have medicinal properties and are used to treat a variety of ailments. The meat is also consumed as a status symbol delicacy. This has caused pangolins like Raymond to be hunted and trafficked to near extinction in Malaysia, the country where the beautiful creature actually derives its name. “Pangolin” comes from the Malay word pengguling, which means “something that rolls up”.
Almost all experts and enforcement agencies agree that most of the demand comes from China, where buying power is strong and there is a cultural heritage of pangolin consumption.
Although the commercial trade of pangolins is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which has been ratified by 183 out of 195 countries worldwide, the trade continues through a network of criminal syndicates that smuggle the animal or its parts across many borders to high-demand markets like China.
The demand is so high that the International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that more than 1.5 million pangolins have been hunted since 2004.
Over the course of many months, R.AGE journalists went undercover to speak with people in the pangolin trafficking trade and piece together the journey of a smuggled pangolin.
These conversations paint a picture of a trade so rampant it threatens the pangolin’s very existence.
The middleman
Along the fringes of the jungle near the Malaysia-thailand border lives a man who, if his stories are true, may well have been one of Malaysia’s most prolific pangolin traders.
“In the past, I was moving a lot of stock, hundreds of baskets,” he says.
“I’m not lying to you! At least three tonnes a month, delivered right to my doorstep.”
Three tonnes would equal around 600 individual pangolins, a staggering number considering they are critically endangered in Malaysia.
Based on his descriptions, he was a middleman – someone who sources pangolins from poachers and hunters and then sells them to syndicates – a key link in the trafficking chain.
“From Malaysia, they (the syndicates) send them by car to Bukit Kayu Hitam (a border checkpoint),” he explains. “Mostly they pass through there. Or they pass at Golok. They can also pass through
Kaki Bukit.” He names one particular smuggler who uses the Golok route, saying he once handed him elephant ivory to smuggle across.
“The Malaysian buyers cover the smuggling from Malaysia all the way to Laos. That is what I know. There is a boss in Malaysia, and a boss in Laos. Everything is transported by car.”
His selling price varied by buyer and by season. That price was passed on to the poachers.
“The highest price I sold at was RM400 per kg at one point. So at the time I was buying for RM370. I hear it can fetch up to RM1,000 in Laos.”
He is careful to make it clear that those days are behind him now, saying he left the trade after being caught in possession of pangolins in 2014. But the trade has changed, according to his observations: “It’s coming from Indonesia now, by boat, but we don’t know where they land and where they load up. There is less stock in Malaysia now, so they rely on Indonesian stock.”
The boatman
On a jetty in Tanjung Piandang, a small fishing village perched along a river mouth feeding into the Malacca Strait, a boatman is raging.
“You’re too educated, so you’re not thinking straight,” he scolds our journalist.
“Who would want to tell you about these
illegal activities? They might beat you up instead!”
Three separate sources have mentioned this place as a hotspot for pangolin smuggling from Indonesia, across the Malacca Strait.
The gruff boatman continues scolding, but almost in the same breath tells us how he participated in one shipment of pangolins.
He describes a trip on a rundown boat with two hired hands, motoring at top speed for an hour and a half towards Indonesia, where they met another boat in international waters and transferred 10 boxes, each containing eight pangolins.
They sped back to Malaysia and landed at an unknown point, where they unloaded the cargo into a few waiting cars.
He was paid RM300 for that trip, but swore never to do it again.
“There were no spare parts or backup fuel on the boat. If we had run into rough weather or some accident, we would have died out at sea.”
But for someone who took part in only one run, he seemed to know a lot about smuggling.
“They don’t dock at any designated landing point,” he says. “They use walkie-talkies or mobile phones to communicate with the buyer, who then gives instructions on safe places to land.
“Sometimes, at a phone call, we will have to turn and land as far away as Penang.”
Raymond’s freedom
After half an hour in pitch darkness, Raymond remains motionless.
It has been a stressful two days for him. After being trafficked and rescued, he undergoes a barrage of tests by Perhilitan vets the next day, to ensure he is healthy enough for release. Our journalists are given the chance to christen him. We decide on Raymond.
The newly named Raymond is then transported to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Sungkai, Perak, where Perhilitan officers arrange for him to be released in a suitable location.
Although tests found him to be healthy, the team is concerned about Raymond’s ability to adapt to his new home. Pangolins are known to be easily stressed and do not survive in captivity for long.
But suddenly, his head pops up from his tightly curled ball of scales.
To be continued
Read R.AGE’S investigative storybook on the illegal pangolin trade in Malaysia at rage.my/pangolin.