 |
| Manis Javanica |
Rich Asian foodies looking for status have settled on the poor, harmless, and rare pangolin
(genus: Manis) also known as the spiny anteater to fulfill their apparently endless craving for strange food. Scaly pangolins look odd--like an unfortunate cross between a small anteater and an armadillo. They are shy and nocturnal, so they are rarely studied. But they need protection because they are vanishing in the face of a massive slaughter for chic human food and the superstitious obsession with animal keratin as a remedy.
David Attenborough, renowned naturalist filmmaker said the pangolin is "the most endearing animal I have met", yet no animal shows up in the exotic meat markets and restaurants of Asia more often than the pangolin. The preparation of pangolin is gruesome in the extreme. They are kept in cages until one is ordered by an extreme diner. Sometimes they are forced fed to increase their weight They are knocked unconscious, then their throats are cut and the blood drained. They are boiled to remove the scales and the meat is cut up to use in dishes. The customer usually takes the pangolin blood home to drink as a nostrum. The pangolin fetus is considered a special delicacy.
 |
| Manis temmenicki |
Despite having sharp scales for its primary means of self-defense--it rolls up into a scaly ball when threatened by a predator--it is a mammal and the only one with true scales. It feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites. So its loss will affect forest ecosystems. Conservations plans for the animal have been overlooked, but
new attention is being given to help pangolins withstand the human onslaught and loss of their forest habitat. No one knows how many pangolins have died in the illegal trade but tens of thousands have been traded each year. In 2000 CITES banned the unsustainable exploitation of these charismatic and unique examples of convergent elvolution. Most traders operate with little fear of the law and even if caught face little more than confiscation of the animals. Keeping pangolins in zoos is not a solution. They rarely survive for long. Replicating their specialist diet is difficult. African pangolins
[L. photo credit: Maria Diekmann] are not trafficked as much as their Asian relatives. But as Asian species become more scarce, the demand pressure will shift just as it has from tiger bones to African lion bones.
The Thai navy reported on Tuesday it intercepted 104 pangolins on the Mekong River headed for Laos to be transshipped to China. The smugglers were arrested before they were able to load their boat with the live cargo. Thailand recently hosted the CITES conference and came under heavy pressure for rampant wildlife smuggling through its territory.
