Skip to main content

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



Comments

Post a Comment

Followers

Popular posts from this blog

Quantas palavras você conhece em inglês?

Quantas palavras você conhece em inglês? Sabe quantas palavras você já aprendeu em inglês? Não! Quer saber? Neste post você vai descobrir como e saber o que isso quer dizer.  A maioria dos adultos natvios que fazem o teste o resultado varia de 20.000 a 35.000 palavras. O nativo médio de 8 anos de idade já conhece 10.000 palavras. O nativo médio de 4 anos de idade já conhece 5.000 palavras. Nativos adultos aprendem quase 1 nova palavra por dia até a meia-idade. O tamanho do vocabulário mais comum para os candidatos estrangeiros é de 4.500 palavras. Não nativos tendem a atingir mais de 10 mil palavras vivendo no exterior. Examinadores estrangeiros aprendem 2,5 novas palavras por dia enquanto vivem em um país de língua inglesa. O tamanho do vocabulário de um adulto nativo parece ser determinado principalmente por hábitos de leitura entre 4 e 15 anos Para o crescimento do vocabulário de um nativo, a leitura de ficção esp
Post a Comment
Read more

RUDE QUESTIONS | C2 LEVEL TEXT EXAMPLE

Why is it rude and socially unacceptable to ask certain questions? The Independent  -  Christine Manby Picture the scene. You’re at a party. You know no one but the host and they’ve had to rush to the kitchen to rescue some smoking vol-au-vents from the oven. You spot a friendly looking fellow guest, also on their own, and sidle over to make their acquaintance by the buffet table. You swap names. You compare notes on your respective journeys to the venue. You talk about the weather. Hasn’t it been strange this year? So far so good. Now what? The host passes by with those vol-au-vents. You grab one and shove it in your mouth. And before you’ve entirely finished eating it you come out with the line , “So, what do you do?” If this were the 1970s, the needle would skitter across the vinyl on the record player, bringing the music to an abrupt and ugly end. As it is, the entire room falls silent as everyone turns to stare. It’s not that your mouth is still full of vol-au-v
Post a Comment
Read more

CHRISTOPHER'S ENCOUNTER WITH ALIENS

Christopher’s encounter with The Aliens It was a dark and stormy night. The whole of Greentown was covered by dark clouds. Christopher was returning home. It started raining cats and dogs. Suddenly he saw a U.F.O. appearing from the clouds above. In no time it landed on the road. Three aliens came out. Chris was astonished as he could understand their language. Their plan was to take all the trees away from earth. Not wasting a moment, Chris called his friends. Those aliens pointed out to a tree. An eerie blue light shot out from their hands making a tree vanish. Soon, Chris’s friends arrived. They tried to scare those aliens by throwing stones, but in vain. Luckily, Mr. Goon, the fat inspector of the area arrived. With a frightened look on his face, he shot at those aliens. One of them pointed his finger at Mr. Goon. To everyone’s amazement, Mr. Goon became as thin as a stick. Everybody laughed. Suddenly, Anna, Chris’s friend, ran towards them, shouting at the top of her
Post a Comment
Read more