Saving Pangolins from Extinction

By Dr Dan Challender

Conservation scientist at the University of Oxford, Chair of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group, and advisor to the Pangolin.

Pangolins could go extinct before most people even know they exist. Image taken by Maria Diekmann.

Pangolins are in crisis, with all eight species threatened with extinction. This means that an entire taxonomic Order, the Pholidota, faces going the way of the dodo. Fortunately, pangolins are starting to receive the attention and conservation action that they deserve and there is cause for optimism.

Pangolins are truly unique. There are no other species quite like them in the animal kingdom. They are the world’s only truly scaly mammals, being covered in hundreds of individual scales comprised of keratin – similar to our hair or fingernails. Despite their uniqueness, we do not know a lot about them. The few things we do know are that they are characteristically shy, solitary and primarily nocturnal, and endearingly, roll up into an impregnable ball when threatened. Of the eight extant species, four occur in sub-Saharan Africa and four inhabit parts of Asia, from Pakistan to China and the Philippines.

Despite little knowledge of the animals, pangolins have been consumed by man throughout history and overexploitation is the main threat to the species. The Bornean Giant Pangolin (Manis paleojavanica) went extinct about 40,000 years ago, likely as a result of overexploitation following the arrival of humans, and pangolin populations in many parts of the world are facing the same threat today. For instance, estimates from China suggest populations there have been reduced by 94% since the 1960s. Pangolin meat has been and is still eaten as a local source of protein across Africa and Asia and is also consumed as a luxury good in parts of Asia. Pangolin scales have been used for endless applications, in particular as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicine to purportedly treat a variety of ailments, which continues today. Pangolin skins were also traded in the hundreds of thousands between the 1970s and 1990s, primarily to the U.S and Mexico, for the manufacture and retail of leather goods including belts, boots and handbags.

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Credits to BBC News- Natural world