Pangolin- A Most Endangered Creature
The world's most trafficked
mammal is one you'll haven't
even heard of. Pangolins also
known as scaly anteaters, are
mammals of the family pholidota.
Pangolin species found only in tropical Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa . A number of extinct pangolin species also are known. Depending on the species, they live in hollow trees or burrows.
They are important because of their large, protective keratin scales that cover their body. Pangolins are nocturnal and their diet consists predominantly of ants and termites that they use their long tongues to catch. Pangolins are saving us millions of dollars every year. pangolins have an extremely significant ecological role.
Around 70 million ants and termites each year will eat one single pangolin. They prefer to be solitary animals and nocturnal creature. They meet only to mate and produce a litter of 1 to 3 offspring, raised for 2 years. It is considered to be the World's most heavily trafficked non-human species. Every year, tens of thousands of pangolins are poached, killed for his or her scales to be used in traditional Chinese medicine and for their meat. They are at high risk of extinction a s they are killed for variety of uses from medicine to luxury goods with the greatest demand. Pangolin scales, such as rhino horn, have no proven medicinal value, but they are used to help with ailments ranging from lactation issues to arthritis in traditional Chinese medicine. The scales are normally dried and ground into a powder that can be converted into a pill. It is also said that pangolin tongue is dried and carried in a person's pocket as a good luck charm.
The international treaty on wildlife trade voted to ban all commercial trade pangolins however these creatures still be poached at an alarming rate even causing a devastating crash in Asian Pangolin populations recently poachers have increasingly turned to African species the most important confiscation of Pangolin scales.
Despite its lizard-like appearance, Pangolin is indeed a mammal. Some pangolins are as small as a domestic cat while others are as big as a medium-sized dog. Pangolins are covered in as many as 1,000 scales which protect them from predators like big cats when threatened a penguins natural defense is to twist up into a ball. Unfortunately, there's one predator that pangolins aren't ready to protect themselves against humans. According to some estimates poachers have haunted more than 1 million pangolins in the past decade. Poachers use trafficking routes that span the world frequently shifting routes to evade enforcement .
Pangolin fetuses sometimes consumed in soup are erroneously thought to reinforce a man's virility but only the rich can afford to eat Pangolin which is consumed in parts of Asia to demonstrate social status in 2016 sides.
African pangolins making prospects worse for Pangolin conservation pangolins face habitat loss as well. They reproduce slowly giving birth to only one baby a year. Pangolin dealers are often a part of an equivalent worldwide criminal networks that drive other animals like elephants and rhinos toward extinction. Loss of pangolins could convince be an ecological and economic disaster for local communities. There's a lot of labor to be done to make sure the survival of pangolins. Countries must work to scale back demand and enforce laws against poaching otherwise, these gentle creatures may disappear before most of the people even know they exist for the newest news on Pangolin conservation and other wildlife issues.
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