Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Pangolin’s plight: Photo book spotlights the world’s most trafficked
mammal
Pangolines are nocturnal, scaly mammals that live in South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa. They have protective keratin scales covering their skin.
They eat ants and termites using their long tongues, helping maintain
ecosystems by controlling insect numbers. Pangolins have existed for 80 million
years, evolved along with dinosaurs, and survived the massive asteroid impact. However,
they are sadly facing extinction due to human threats like poaching. When
threatened, a pangolin curls into a near-impenetrable ball with its scales, but
those scales are highly demanded for traditional medicine, mainly in China. In fact,
pangllins are the world’s most illegally poached and widely trafficked mammals
for their meat and scales. Even though China banned the use of pangolins in
traditional medicines in October this year, the future of the scaled mammal remains
uncertain.
Read the article and see the photos to learn about long-lived Pangolins.
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