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www.thevillagenews.co.za
26 June 2019
Pangolins in peril Writer Dr Anina Lee
PHOTO: Keith Coleen Begg
Sr Theanette Staal of APSS during the necropsy.
M
ost of us have probably never seen a pangolin in real life. They are fairly pre-historic looking – something like a walking pinecone or an artichoke with legs. They’re the only mammals covered in scales, which can protect them from predators. When threatened, they roll up into a tight ball baring their sharp scales which they can use like a saw. They are pretty well protected from all predators – except humans. Ironically, it’s these scales that are the driving force behind the illicit pangolin trade, commanding huge prices on the black market. This has put all pangolin species at high risk of extinction. They are now the most trafficked mammals in the world – more than rhinos, elephants or tigers. We do not have reliable estimates of how many pangolins remain in the wild. It’s thought that over a million individual pangolins were taken from the wild between 2000 and 2013. Currently it is estimated that 10 000 pangolins are illegally taken per year, compared to 200 tigers and 1 000 rhinos. Pangolin scales are used in traditional Asian medicine, particularly in China and Vietnam. They are believed to have curative properties; however, pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same material that makes human fingernails and hair, and has no proven medicinal value. Pangolin meat is also considered to be a delicacy in these countries. The
high price of pangolin meat (which you can order to be killed at your dining table in restaurants) makes it a very desirable status symbol. Pangolins are often confused with anteaters and armadillos, but they are actually more closely related to cats and dogs. There are four species of pangolin in Africa (and another four in Asia), but only one, Smutsia temminckii, or Temminck’s Ground Pangolin, has a range that extends into the northern parts of South Africa. Pangolins feed mostly on ants and termites, which are gathered up either from the ground or in trees. Termite nests provide larger and more concentrated sources of food. Pangolins can dig termites from mounds with their specially adapted claws. Because they are toothless, they use their extremely long tongues to collect their prey. Large salivary glands coat the long tongue with a gummy mucus to which ants and termites stick. A pangolin’s stomach is also specially adapted for grinding food. This process is helped along by the small stones and sand pangolins consume with their ants. Pangolins’ insatiable appetite for insects gives them an important role in the ecosystem: pest control.
PHOTO: CNN.com
Estimates indicate that one adult pangolin can consume more than 70 million insects annually.
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Pangolins reach sexual maturity at two years of age. The gestation period for Temminck’s is four months. Most pangolins give birth to a single offspring. Their scales are soft and pale, and begin to harden by the second day. A mother will protectively roll around her baby when sleeping or if threatened. Babies nurse for three to four months, but can eat termites and ants at one month old. At this time, the baby begins to accompany the mother outside of the burrow, riding on the base of her tail as she forages for insects.
Writer Concerned Correspondent
A ban on global trade in all pangolin species was introduced in 2016, but it has not been enough to stem the demand for these shy animals. Unlike the poaching of elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns, the hunting of pangolins is still not widely known.
The motto is easy: reduce, reduce, reduce. Reuse, reuse, reuse; only then, recycle.
To read the full (and horrific) inside story about the pangolin trade go to https://edition.cnn.com/ interactive/2014/04/opinion/sutter-change-the-list-pangolin-trafficking/
The body of a murdered juvenile African penguin was recently discovered on Grotto Beach in Hermanus. After a thorough forensic investigation the death was ruled as suspicious. After a necropsy by Sr Theanette Staal of the African Penguin & Seabird Sanctuary the murder weapon was identified as a piece of plastic in the stomach of the victim. The weapon was most probably disguised as a shrimp and caused the unfortunate youngster to die of starvation. A spokesperson for the Penguin Police stated that there are approximately 57 million suspects in South Africa, many of whom are habitual criminals. “We would like to urge members of the public to remove themselves from the suspect list by refusing to use single-use plastic,” the spokesperson said.
#PlasticFacts Seabirds are particularly vulnerable to ingesting plastics because most species feed at or near the ocean surface. They forage along eddies and oceanic convergence zones – the same areas where marine plastics accumulate. • Annually approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. More than one million bags are used every minute; • A plastic bag has an average “working life” of 15 minutes; • Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century; • What we see floating on the surface is just 5% of the plastic pollution in the ocean – the other 95% lurks below the surface, according to Ocean Conservancy.
Whale Coast Conservation is privileged to host a showing of the documentary, Eye of the Pangolin on Saturday 29 June at the Green House in Vermont. The documentary will be introduced by Helena Atkinson and Catherine Ritchie of the NGO, Pangolin.Africa, co-producers of the movie. The Whale Coast Conservation Green House is on the mountain side of the R43 opposite the Lynx Avenue turn-off to Vermont. Children are most welcome. Entrance is free, but a donation is always appreciated.
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