Pangolin SOS

A small and scaly animal that looks almost like a pine cone with legs trundles slowly through the forest. It can barely see, and has no teeth. Hardly sounds like a formidable foe, but this unusual creature would strike fear into your heart - if you were an ant.

The pangolin, native to Asia and Africa, is perfectly adapted to killing its prey. With large claws, the animal can tear a hole in the side of any anthill. Its long, sticky tongue - with which it scoops up its prey - is the ultimate flypaper. The pangolin's hard, armor-like scales and ability to close its ears and nostrils render useless the ants' usual defense strategy: to swarm and bite.

The insects are helpless. But so, too, are pangolins - in the face of poaching and a burgeoning appetite for their meat and scales across Africa and the Far East, according to conservation group WWF.

In Africa, they are hunted as bushmeat. But their scales, which are made of keratin - the same substance found in rhino horn and human fingernails - and other body parts, including bones, eyes, claws and the heart - are also used in traditional medicines and cultural practices, such as rain-making ceremonies or to ward off evil spirits.

The animals are in highest demand in China and Vietnam. There, the flesh of both adults and fetuses is a delicacy, and believed to confer health benefits on those who eat it. The scales, blood and body parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat ailments ranging from asthma to arthritis.
Plummeting numbers

Little information is available on pangolin numbers. They are solitary and secretive animals, active mainly at night. All eight species are protected under international agreements, and range from vulnerable to critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

But based on reported seizures of dead pangolins and their availability in restaurants and markets, conservationists say they are all in decline - particularly in Asia - and are concerned that African pangolins will next be targeted to satisfy Asian demand.

It's little wonder that the illegal pangolin trade continues in spite of sanctions and efforts to halt it. Live animals fetch up to 1,335 euros per kilo ($681 per pound) in Vietnam, according to a recent report.

This same investigation found restaurants openly selling pangolins for 223 euros per kilogram. In some places, live animals could be brought to the table, where their throats were slit and their blood served - as an aphrodisiac.


Protecting the pangolin

Despite this ravenous demand, conservation groups are working hard globally to protect the mammal. The African Wildlife Foundation is supporting communities living near pangolins to shift to sustainable agriculture and away from hunting threatened wildlife for food. Conservation groups are also campaigning to have all pangolin species added to Appendix 1 of the CITES treaty governing international wildlife trade. Such a move would allow trade of the animals only under "exceptional circumstances" and would acknowledge they are facing extinction.

Environmentalists are urging governments attending the World Wildlife Conference in Johannesburg this month to impose maximum restrictions on the trade of endangered pangolins.

WWF, TRAFFIC and WildAid are involved in campaigns to raise awareness around the pangolin's plight, and educate people about the lack of any medicinal or magical properties in pangolin scales.

In reality, these scales are merely a defense mechanism - when threatened, the animal curls into a ball, wearing the scales like armor. The name pangolin derives from the Malay word "pengguling," which translates as "something that rolls up."
Despite its protective scales, preservation of the pangolin in the wild is the animal's only hope. They rarely survive in captivity - only six zoos in the world successfully keep pangolins.