Hunted into oblivion
THE GRAINY image would never win a wildlife photography competition but it might just tip the scales in protecting the planet’s most persecuted creatures.
Looking like something from a sci-fi movie, the incredible body armour of the giant pangolin glistens in the first colour trap picture recorded of this elusive species.
Conservationists at Chester Zoo who captured the pangolin on night patrol in Uganda as part of a pioneering study to shine more light on the mysterious and largest of all the reptilian-looking mammals, are describing the scenes as “momentous”.
For all their survival adaptations, with an ability to roll in a ball and use their tough armour-plating to withstand the bites of powerful predators, pangolins are in peril. Criminal gangs are pushing the eight different varieties, four African, four Asian and all on the Red List of threatened species, towards oblivion in a cruel, multimillion pound global enterprise.
Pangolin flesh and scales – made from keratin, the same substance as human finger nails – are hailed as panaceas in traditional oriental medicine for many ills. Cooked in boys’ urine, they are said to soothe crying children and cure women possessed by ogres.
Scales stripped from pangolins sell on the black market for £1,000 a pound. For all the international efforts in protecting pangolins, they are dying in unsustainable numbers. A million have been slaughtered in the past decade and, over the past month, successive record hauls have been seized. After huge seizures in Vietnam, Hong Kong and Uganda, last week saw 29.8 tons of frozen pangolins, scales and live animals recovered by police at factory and warehouse sites in Malaysia.
Protecting pangolins needs the appliance of science and gathering data is key to enhancing conservation efforts. Chester Zoo has been working with the Uganda Wildlife Authority and Rhino Fund Uganda by setting up 70 motion-sensor trail cameras in the famous Ziwa Sanctuary, as well as searching for footprints and burrows of the huge termite-slurpers that can grow up to nearly 6ft, weigh 5st and were once known as scaly anteaters.
The research, involving gathering dung samples to provide diet and genetic information and, added to photo evidence, allows individuals to be identified by their scale patterning.
The next phase will see pangolins fitted with satellite trackers to build up insights into their ranging behaviour and allow conservationists to count and monitor them. As World Pangolin Day was marked yesterday, Stuart Nixon, Chester Zoo’s Africa field programme and research lead, explained the importance of the hazy but precious image. “The giant pangolin is a beautiful, mysterious and utterly fascinating species but studying them is extremely challenging,” he said. “Being nocturnal, rare and very shy, it’s only with new technologies such as high sensitivity trail cameras that we are able to learn more about how they live and interact with each other and their environment.
“Tragically, we do know the giant pangolin faces a huge risk of going extinct across Central Africa. With no giant pangolins in zoos or safari parks anywhere in the world, all our conservation efforts must focus on saving them in the wild. The race is on against criminal networks that only value dead pangolins, to save this species and protect them.
“The momentous images and video we are capturing at Ziwa prove that when sites are well protected against poaching, giant pangolins and other species can flourish.”
‘The race is on against criminals who only value dead pangolins’