The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission Pangolin Specialist Group at the Zoological Society of London published a report on 29 July 2013 warning that Pangolin's are now traded illegally more than any other Mammal, with over 1 million individuals taken from the wild in the last decade. Pangolins are eaten as a luxury foodstuff across East Asia, as well as being used in traditional medicine in places. There is an international ban on trading in Pangolins and Pangolin derived products, but the high value attached to the meat of the animals has led to this being widely flouted.
One of the worst affected species is the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) which has had its conservation status revised to Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The species has been targeted as a foodstuff across much of its range throughout history, but the expansion of the trade in Pangolin meat in the last two decades has reduced it to a few remnant populations.
Female Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) with infant. Animals on Earth.
The species was once common across much of eastern Asia, from the Himalayan foothills to Vietnam. Loas and Thailand and across much of China, including Hong Kong, as well as Taiwan, where the population is thought to comprise a separate subspecies, the Formosan Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla pentadactlya). However it has been heavily hunted across much of its former territory, and is either absent or present at very low population levels in most areas.
It has been effectively commercially extinct in China since the 1990s, with demand for Pangolins for consumption being met almost entirely from overseas. The species is thought to have declined by 88.88 - 94.12% since the 1960s, with relict populations probably still present in remote parts of Guangxi and Yunnan provinces and on the island of Hainan. It is still present in Hong Kong, but again is considered to have become rare. The status of the species in Taiwan is unclear, but it is known to have been the subject of heavy hunting and is at best rare now. There was a healthy population in he Royal Nagarjung Forest in Kathmandu, Nepal, in the 1990s, but the species is believed to have declined greatly across much of the country due to hunting. Little data is available on the species in India, where it is also thought to have declined greatly due to hunting. The species is reported to be present in Vietnam, but very rare; however these reports are largely based upon reports by local hunters, and may represent another species of Pangolin. The last confirmed sighting of the species in Laos occurred in the 1990s, and the last report in Thailand was in the 1930s. The status of the species in Myanmar and Bangladesh is unknown, but unlikely to be good.
The former range of the Chinese Pangolin (Manis pentadactyla). nternational Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
See also...
Birdlife International published an assessment of the conservation status of 350 newly described Bird Species for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species on 24 July 2014, the first such assessment by the organization. 25% of the species described are considered to be...
Birdlife International published an assessment of the conservation status of 350 newly described Bird Species for International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species on...
Birdlife International published an assessment of the conservation status of 350 newly described Bird Species for International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species on 24 July 2014, the first such assessment by the organization. 25% of the species described are considered to be threatened, compared to about 13% of all known bird species, though this is in part due to...
Follow Sciency Thoughts on Facebook.
