Pangolin Rapidly Approaching Extinction
The pangolin, also known as the trenggiling or scaly anteater, is an endangered species native to tropical areas of Asia and Africa. Resembling an armadillo, it’s covered in big keratin scales, and is nocturnal, spending most of the day curled up in a ball, asleep. Since they don’t have teeth, they eat bugs by using their long tongues, and use their claws to dig or peel back bark to find them. Cute for scaly critters, they’re also unfortunately one of the most popular types of bush meat on Earth.
In Africa, the pangolin is hunted mainly for food. The same goes for China, where the creature is considered a delicacy—as well as a health remedy. Some are under the impression that pangolin meat will help women who breast-feed make more milk, as well as promote blood circulation and reduce swelling. Because of the high demand of the creature for human consumption, as well as the deforestation of it’s habitat, its numbers have dwindled down to near extinction.
Oh, and stuffed pangolins are also sold—making what is, I’m sure, quite a realistic toy.
While the sale of the pangolin is illegal—being banned within Asia as well as by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which prohibits cross-border trade—as with most protected animals, it hasn’t stopped people from hunting, killing and eating it.
To cook a pangolin, chefs actually keep them in cages, alive, until the order is made. Then they are hammered unconscious, after which their throats are slit and their blood is drained. “It’s a slow death,” explains one chef. Then they cut it into little pieces and use it to make braised meat, soup, and other dishes—saving the blood for the customer to take home with them.
Is it a souvenir, I wonder, or a “health” elixir? It sounds more like a real-life version of Hostel for endangered animals to me.
But since the Chinese have been using the pangolin for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, demand is not likely to diminish. And as recently as last winter, Vietnamese officials have seized five tons of pangolin meat—estimated to be from about 1,481 pangolins.
This week, wildlife organizations have announced that the demand for this creature—especially in China—has it on the brink of extinction, particularly in its presence in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. They are now the most commonly smuggled mammal in the whole of Asia’s illegal wildlife trafficking trade.
Though some people advocate creating a legal trade of the pangolin with certain limitations in place, environmentalists are firmly against the idea, saying that resources are already spread thinly and that management of such trade would be nearly impossible. Instead, they say, a stronger focus on enforcing the current ban is needed.
