By Sandra Tuombouh
The illicit trade in Pangolin meat, scales and body parts projects a future void of the 80million-year-old species, as they are now the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world.
A one-of-a-kind mammal native to Africa and Asia, Pangolins are often referred to as scalyan teaters, who use their long, sticky tongues, which can extend up to 40 cm, to slurp insects that live inside trees and beneath the ground. Their excellent olfactory perception enables them easily locate nests, after which they use their long, sharp claws to dig into them and reach their prey.
Statistics from the International Fund for Animal Welfare have shown that a single pangolin can consume 70 million insects per year, meanwhile these scaly mammals go up to 137 meters in length in their life time.
Just 8 species of these unique animals remain on earth, with half of them in Africa and the other in Asia, spread across China, India, Malaysia, and parts of Southeast Asia. Pangolins were first listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature-IUCN Red List in1975, due to overhunting and poaching for their meat and scales. In 2014, all 8 pangolin species were up listed to Endangered or Critically Endangered status due to a dramatic increase in poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking. Underlying Factors Fueling High Demand Over the millennia, Pangolin scales have been in high demand, where they are believed to have healing properties and are used to treat a variety of ailments. The scales are dried, ground into powder, and used in various traditional Chinese medicines and tonics. They are used in nourishing the kidneys, treating skin diseases like psoriasis, as well as working as an aphrodisiac and improving blood circulation. Investigations have uncovered large-scale pangolin poaching and smuggling operations in forests and wildlife trade hubs in Cameroon and Nigeria. Porous borders, corruption, and lack of capacity to enforce wildlife laws in these West African countries have enabled the thriving pangolin trafficking trade. From Nigeria’s forests and savannas,
pangolin meat and scales are then smuggled through Lagos, Kano, and other major cities, to international markets, in Central Africa, China and Vietnam.
With over one million pangolins believed to have been traded illegally in the last decade according to the IUCN, Pangolins are in high demand, due to their meat, which is considered a local delicacy in parts of Asia, and their skin to be used as leather, for wearable goods in the USA. Between 1980 and 1985, escalating demand has been highlighted in Asia, with more than165,000 pangolin skins legally exported from Asia to the US. Seemingly pangolin tongues have also been incorporated into special soups, whilst its blood is drained for drinking and used in tonic wines.
Moves To Protect Pangolins.
Even though there seemed to have been an upsurge in the demand for this scaly mammal, requisite attempts to curb this illicit activity have however been made across the globe. Custom officials in the US reportedly seized 30,000 illegally imported pangolins between 2005 and2014. In May 2015 the Vietnamese Government stopped pangolin scales from being available under health insurance schemes. Due to the persistent decline in this species, all eight species of pangolin were re-classified to Appendix I under the Convention in the International Trade in Endangered Species-CITES in 2016, to give them the highest level of protection. In 2017, China made the biggest recorded seizure of pangolin scales at 11.9 tonnes, which is the equivalent of around 20,000 pangolins. In 2019, over 2 tons of pangolin scales were seized in a single bust in Douala, Cameroon’s largest city and port, while 12 tons of pangolin scales were seized in Lagos that same year.
Despite the substantial endeavors carried out by different governments and wildlife organizations, this insectivore still remains on the verge of extinction as just a couple of thousands of them exist as of now. Urgent conservation action is needed to prevent these unique, scaled mammals from going extinct in the wild, as they face universal severe threats.
