PANGOLINS ARE AMONG THE MOST TRAFFICKED OF MAMMALS

PANGOLINS ARE AMONG THE MOST TRAFFICKED OF MAMMALS

April 10, 2019

Plain English Version

Pangolins are a housecat-sized, forest-dwelling mammal. They look like an armor-clad anteater. Pangolin meat is a delicacy in southern China. People prize its scales as an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine. The world had banned trade in pangolin products since 2016.

Pangolins are threatened with extinction. Authorities recently found a shipment of 14 tons of pangolin scales in Singapore. Poachers killed about 36,000 pangolins for the shipment. It is the biggest seizure of pangolin scales on record.

The animal is about gone in most of its native range in Southeast Asia. Poachers are killing them at alarming levels in Central Africa. Four of the eight species are now endangered.

One problem is the pangolin’s defense against predators.  It will curl itself into a ball. This defense reaction has made it an easy target for hunters.

China is the biggest wildlife market in the world. About 70 percent of Chinese people believe that pangolin meat can cure human ailments.  The ailments range from rheumatism to skin diseases. Consumers often use pangolin parts in wine or powder form. It is part of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions.

The second biggest market for pangolins is Vietnam. Many Vietnamese see pangolin meat as a luxury. It is a sign of social status and wealth. In January 2019, Hong Kong authorities found nine tons of pangolin scales on a cargo ship. The vessel was bound to Vietnam from Nigeria.

The center for criminal wildlife trade is Hong Kong. The city sits on the doorstep of mainland China. Pangolin products are not hard to find in Hong Kong. The territory accounted for more pangolin seizures than in any country.

On a well-trafficked road, the clerk at one small shop offered pangolin scales to a customer. The shop was careful not to keep the product on the premises. The clerk said, “We sell a lot, and we have been doing this business for a long time.” She said that with a phone call she could deliverer it in half an hour. Getting it across the border was easy as “we just grind it into powder.”

Hong Kong is also the world’s premier port of entry for legal wildlife products. The city is much like its neighbor, Guangdong province. The province is a center of traditional Chinese medicine and ivory craftsmanship. It is a place where the consumption of wildlife for food is also ingrained.

Hong Kong is the hub of global wildlife trading, legal and illegal. Policing the traffic in pangolins is not a high priority.

The pangolin is in grave danger.

Source: The New York Times April 8, 2019