It is common knowledge to all about the vast worldwide illicit trade of African ivory from ravenously poaching elephant tusks and rhino horns, but it will come as a concealed surprise that one mammal’s trafficking rates far surpass these revered African animals.
All eight species of this mammal are deemed threatened in their native habitats that stretch from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia to the savannah and dry woodlands of African nations. In order to fully comprehend the magnitude of these organised operations to source these animals, you have to appreciate how globally widespread the trade is.
Due to the demand for their prized skins, scales and meat across certain countries, the deliberately hidden trade has culminated in a global network that has trafficked over an estimated 1 million of these animals from the period of 2000 to 2013. To be able to move that many animals, it’s obvious that a whole host of countries have to be involved in sourcing them in the wild and transporting them globally.
As the trafficking rates grow, new supply lines are created yearly to move them. Ultimately, it has led to trade authorities making animal product seizures across 67 countries on all continents excluding Antarctica. The trade routes of these animals are now being heavily tracked with surprising results being found regarding the transit paths from Africa through Europe, along with the US’s involvement in the trade.
Unfortunately, this mammal is incredibly susceptible to poaching pressures. Its primary instinct to curl into a ball when threatened rather than escape contributes to the ease of capturing them. Building on their vulnerability, they have a high sensitivity to capture-induced stress which isn’t helped by the fact that their primarily insectivorous diet is so tricky to replicate.
Commonly known as the ‘scaly anteater’ with its combination of a lengthy protruding tongue, appetite for ants and idyllic scales, the pangolin is the world’s most trafficked mammal.
A Ground Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) sighting at Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa. It walks on its hind feet using its front feet for balance.
PHOTOGRAPH BY David Brossard
Trade routes
Trade in pangolins has commonly been focused within Southeast Asia with the source countries ultimately aiming to move pangolins to the high demand regions of China, Vietnam and Hong Kong SAR.
Pangolin products are shipped and transported using an array of methods. Border officials have found bags containing the contents of scales, skins and even foetuses, all being moved for trade. Pangolins have also been found being transported frozen or still living.
China has been seen to drive a huge demand in scales along with whole animals, many being alive. Pangolins noticeably struggle physically whilst being trafficked alive. Therefore, they can only survive being traded alive by local countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, India and Malaysia.
An unexpected surprise in the pangolin trade is nationally where skins and body parts end up. Studies show that the primary destination for shipments of body parts is rather unexpectedly the US. Mainly utilised for leather products rather than meat consumption or medicinal value, pangolins are known to be commonly fabricated into cowboy boots and sold across the country. The trade in the US has been seen to move low volumes of pangolin products but the frequency is still very high. It is the complete opposite style of trafficking in comparison to the multi tonne shipments seized and transported into China.
As the pangolin trade has been rampant in Southeast Asian species the trade has shifted to a new prominent source, the four species of pangolins found in Africa. Cameroon, Nigeria and Uganda all source pangolins and are involved heavily in the trade of scales to China normally via Hong Kong and European countries such as Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Europe has been established as a transit region aiding the growing trade of African pangolins to Asian countries.
Trade routes for animal trafficking are always changing and adapting in order to dodge authority regulations so the whole system of transporting these animals can rapidly change. Future transport hubs will arise which may very possibly be through the Middle East with countries such as Qatar and UAE. Their geographical location and wealthy transport infrastructure seem like a perfect location to transit pangolin products from Africa to Asia.
It is incredibly difficult to put an estimate on the number of pangolins trafficked globally but certain seizures allow you to see how the demand simply isn’t slowing down. Singapore had a record pangolin scales seizure in April 2019 of 14 tonnes, as the 40 foot container labelled as ‘frozen beef’ travelled from Nigeria to Vietnam. The scales in that container alone are from an estimated 36,000 pangolins.
Pangolins presume their natural defence system of curling into a tight ball and allowing their protective keratin scales to stop predators from attacking. They have the ability to stop lions from penetrating their scales.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Wildlife Alliance
Medicinal value and demand
The growing demand for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a huge driver, if not the biggest, in why pangolins are hunted and trafficked.
Pangolin scales, just like rhino horns, are made out of a protein called keratin which makes up your hair and nails. Behind all these animal based medicines such as tiger bones, bear bile and rhino horns, lies a very speculative attitude towards their true medicinal value. Is there actual scientific evidence that these products aid in curing what they claim to do, or is it a placebo effect at play? It’s very hard to tell. Clearly in China TCM positive impacts are more commonly believed as it is regularly offered in hospitals along with scientifically-based treatments.
Pangolin scales in TCM are prescribed for a whole host of reasons, to help breastfeeding for new mothers, aid menstruation, along with arthritic conditions such as joint pain. As TCM claims that pangolins aid so many conditions, it is tricky to gather enough scientific evidence on one condition alone to validate the claims.
Historically, pangolin medicine has been believed to be used in China since 500 CE during the Liang dynasty. However at present, the trade in medicine has reached an unsustainable level. The growing affluence of China is what massively fuels this increased demand for medicine. In China, 30-40 years ago, the level of wealth was far lower but now we see a middle class population of around 400 million.
China possesses a debatably shady legal stockpile of pangolin scales to be used to create patented medicines giving limited information on where these stockpiles of scales come from and how many remain to create these medicines. It poses a clear exploitative market for illegal pangolin scales from African and Asian nations to enter and be consumed via this loophole.
Pangolin meat within Vietnam and China is also a major aspect of why whole animals are trafficked. In the past pangolin meat was consumed by rural villagers as a supplementary protein source. However, it has now shifted in parts of China and Vietnam, to a delicacy eaten amongst the economically wealthy as a demonstration of social status and hospitality. Prices for pangolins in China can fetch $3000 for one animal with prices for them rising year on year.
The pangolins are normally eaten in soup or hot pot. In some cases before eating pangolins, the chef will kill the animal in front of guests in order to prove the freshness of the meat.
Scales of a Ground Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) found in the Serengeti, Tanzania.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Shutterstock
Ecological role
The shy, elusive nature of pangolins has made it difficult to estimate how many still exist in the wild using large-scale population studies. However, populations of the Chinese pangolin, which are now crucially endangered, have been seen to have declined by 88% since the 1960s as a result of constant poaching pressures. As Africa’s pangolins become more highly prized it would be hard to argue that their populations won’t decline at this rate, or possibly worse.
As trafficking continues pangolin population’s slow reproductive rate doesn’t have the capacity to recover quickly from human capture, especially when coupled with current habitat loss. Pangolin species often have only one offspring yearly.
The low resilience of these species is extremely likely to drive them to extinction if the demand remains so excessive. As population numbers of pangolins species plummet, prices will in reverse rise due to the rarity. The elephant ivory trade is currently seeing this situation unfold as numbers drop and poachers are able to gain more money from killing elephants from the dwindling population.
Pangolins are insectivorous utilising their long claws to disrupt termite mounds and ant nests to feed off. The extent of their role in controlling termite and ant populations in rainforest and savannah habitats is tricky to measure but one pangolin alone has the capability to eat 70 million ants a year. Along with their ability to aerate soil whilst excavating ant nests and digging burrows pangolins are important keystone species in their ecosystems. The removal of pangolins initially may seem like a minor loss, but with the ability to control populations and massively aid soil health, it’s difficult to tell how detrimental the knock-on effects of their loss will be.
The Long-tailed pangolin (Manis tetradactyla) is the smallest of the eight extant pangolin species. It ranges across western Africa in swampy forest environments.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Brett Hartl / Center for Biological Diversity.
Very recent Coronavirus studies and misinformation pinned sizeable blame upon pangolins as a potentially likely source of Covid-19. The SARS outbreak in 2002 sparked a mass killing of civets which were believed to be the source of the virus. It raises the question of if there is the possibility that Covid-19 worries will halt the pangolin trafficking trade and reduce their demand.
Unfortunately, with the demand present today, these shy elusive species of mammals have the potential to become extinct before most of the world even knew that they ever existed.
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