The Pangolin

So Saturday was World Pangolin Day, and although I was unable to write this post on the day, getting the word out about this amazing species is really important for their conservation!

So I ask, how many of you know what a pangolin looks like? Where do they live? and how endangered are they?

Pangolins may look like scaly Anteaters but their DNA shows that amazingly they are more closely related to carnivores. There is believed to be 8 species of pangolin, 4 of these species live in Africa and the other 4 live in Asia, sadly all of the species that live in Asia are endangered or seriously at risk, but, it is not actually known how many pangolins there are in the wild and so really they could be close to extinction and we don't know.

Images from African Geographic

The pangolin is covered in scales from head to tail and these scales can make up 20% of the animals body weight. Sadly though, it is these scales that are leading to a rapid decline in the species, as although the scales are only made out of keratin like your nails and hair they are being poached for their scales, just like Rhinos are being poached for their horn.

Images from African Geographic

The main reason you may never of heard of this amazing species though, is because there are only 6 zoos in the world that have a captive pangolin, and only one of these is in Europe. This is mainly because they rarely survive in captivity.

The most important fact on this page is that the pangolin is the world's most trafficked mammal in the world and yet we hardly ever hear anything about them. This beautiful species doesn't run away when threatened, it curls itself into a ball and so enables poachers to easily pick them up and stuff them in a bag.

Images from African Geographic

So whilst everyone is worried about the elephants that are taking over national parks, people have not stopped to notice that around 100,000 pangolins are year are disappearing from their natural habitat and send to Vietnam or China where their meat is a delicacy and their scales are thought to have magical qualities, just like the rhino horn.

This is not only a sad state of affairs for the animals but also great loss for also for us. We have been so concerned with all the giant animals out there we have neglected this smaller (and cuter) one.Now there are no pangolins left is South East Asia, and the poaching of the 4 African species has begun!

The pangolin is such a peaceful and beautiful creature and although some things are being done to help them, such as stopping traffickers before they sell them, it is not enough. The most shocking thing is that you can walk into some areas of old China and can have a live  pangolin brought to your table where its throat can be slit and the blood served as an aphrodisiac or you can buy the scales from most chinese medicine shops, with their price being up to £1000 a kilo.

Apparently though, the problem isn't education like the western world want to believe, it is actually the few rich officials and businessmen that want them, the people who you would believe are the most educated of them all have caused 90 million Vietnamese people to no longer be able to see a pangolin in the wild.

Why? I don't know, all I do know is that unless this inquisitive species gets the press it deserves, it may be gone before people really get the opportunity to understand them

Here's a video to show you a little more about this beautiful species.

To read more about the problems from a Vietnamese conservationist click here
Images from African Geographic