Covered in scales made of keratin, pangolins are curious little creatures. They scurry around the forest floors on a never-ending search for ants, consuming up to 23,000 of the insects per day – that’s more than seven million ants in a year. Although they’re commonly referred to as scaly anteaters and likened to armadillos, they actually have very little in common with either.
The name pangolin comes from the Malay word ‘penggulung’ meaning roller, a nod to the animal’s defensive tactic of instantly curling into a ball when they’re frightened, in a bid to protect their un-scaled undersides. Pangolins are burrowing mammals and make their homes by using their long claws to sift through the soil and their stout bodies to rock from side to side, creating a space to settle down in.
The illegal trade has mostly been driven by high demand and high profit. It’s estimated that demand in China amounts to 200,000 individual pangolins per year, earning them the not-so-glamorous title of the most trafficked mammal on Earth. The price of scales on the black market can fetch anything up to £500 per kilogram (around £227 per pound), and this figure is steadily rising.
At present, pangolin conservation seems to be stuck in a vicious circle; as the number of remaining pangolins decreases, their commercial value on the black market increases, which further fuels the demand for pangolins as a status of wealth, and ultimately increases poaching efforts to fulfil the demand.
Read more the full article in Issue 1.
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