On World Pangolin Day, can we wait for good news about pangolins?

Today - the third Saturday in February - is World Pangolin Day.

This scaly mammal can curl up into an indestructible ball when in danger. However, this still cannot save them from being hunted and poached. Now, all pangolins are facing huge threats to their survival. The Chinese pangolin and the Malayan pangolin are assessed as "critically endangered" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

On World Pangolin Day, can we wait for the pangolin to return?

"The pangolin mother held her breastfeeding child tightly in her arms with her limbs and covered the child's body with her broad and long tail, fearing that others would snatch it away from her. Then she curled her body into a ball. In this way, the mother and child lay there quietly, their eyes revealing despair from time to time, as if waiting for the judgment of the god of fate."

——Zhou Xiangtian, Wu Shibao, and Zhou Weibo, “Reflections on a major pangolin trafficking case”

This is a description of the poached Chinese pangolin. When faced with a threat, the pangolin will suddenly stop, freeze, run away, or curl up into a ball. Because its heavy tail affects its movement speed, it cannot run fast. Its most common defense method is to bury its head in its chest, hold its head tightly with its arms, curl its hind legs around its neck, and then cover its head with its long tail, turning it into an indestructible "pine cone". It is called "walking pinecones" in English. The baby pangolin is wrapped in the arms of its mother, who uses her last bit of strength to preserve the child's hope of life.

Wildlife rescuer Chen rescued a Chinese pangolin｜Huaxi

Although the back and outer sides of the pangolin's limbs are covered with scales, the ventral side is soft and heart-melting, with pink skin and fluffy white hair, which is the last warmth it leaves for the pangolin baby. The dark eyes, ears that are larger than those of the other seven pangolin species, and the wet nose make the Chinese pangolin look particularly cute and helpless.

Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis) in the forests of Palawan | Shukran888 / Wikimedia Commons

Originated before the extinction of dinosaurs

The eight existing pangolin species originated in Eurasia and have an evolutionary history of 80 million years. The earliest fossils were found in the late Eocene in Europe. Scientists once thought that pangolins were a branch of the Edentata (such as anteaters and armadillos), but later found that they were not related to each other except that they did not have teeth and fed on ants and termites. Pangolins are more closely related to the Carnivora order, which has a complex tooth structure, so they became an independent branch, the Pholidota order, with only one family, the Pangolinidae.

Pangolins were once considered a close relative of the yú｜Wikimedia Commons

Between 38 million and 13 million years ago, pangolins were divided into three groups: Asian pangolins (Manis), smaller African tree-dwelling pangolins (Phataginus), and larger African ground-dwelling pangolins (Smutsia). Since then, Asian pangolins have gone their separate ways from African pangolins, each on its own path of evolution and adaptation on two continents.

Long-tailed pangolin, a tree pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) living in Africa, with a flexible tail that can wrap around tree trunks｜Bart Wursten / Flickr

The South African pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), a larger species of ground pangolin, holds its hands in front of it when walking, posing in a cute manner｜David Brossard / Flickr

However, unexpectedly, millions of years later, their fates would be intertwined again.

A hermit living on termites

As the sun sets and darkness gradually covers the earth, the Chinese pangolin enters its most active period of the day. With poor eyesight, it relies on its excellent sense of smell to slowly wander deep in the forest, looking for its dinner. It is very adaptable and can find habitats from less than 100 meters to 3,000 meters above sea level, from tropical rainforests to coniferous forests, from bamboo forests, grasslands to farmlands. It can even tolerate a certain degree of interference from human activities and live near human residences. All it needs is abundant food: ants and termites. There are more than 23 species of ants and 12 species of termites on its menu, and its taste preferences are changing as autumn approaches. In summer, it mainly eats ants, and in winter, it mainly relies on termites for survival. At this moment, what it needs is a termite nest.

Passing by a fallen tree, where a termite nest was hidden, the pangolin sniffed but walked away without interest. The termites living in the wood are often in very small nests, with only a few thousand individuals, which is not enough for it to work hard. What it is looking for is a larger nest in the soil, where millions of termites gather, which is a more tempting meal.

A specimen of a Chinese pangolin, which has the ability to coil its tail so it can hang from a branch. | Claire H. / Wikimedia Commons

In an open area, it found its target. The Chinese pangolin's front claws are stronger than those of the other species, and it began to dig frantically. However, the ground here is very hard, and the progress is not as fast as expected. At this time, it uses its strong tail to support the ground, providing additional support, allowing its forelimbs to exert more powerful digging power. As handfuls of soil were thrown behind it, the termite nest finally appeared. It stretched out its long tongue, wreaked havoc in the nest, and picked up termites and put them into its mouth. It can go without food for 10 days in winter and 5 to 7 days in summer. However, it needs to replenish a lot of energy at this moment because it has a fetus in its belly. It mates in spring and summer, with a gestation period of more than half a year, and it will give birth to a cub from September to February of the following year.

Shortly after midnight, it found a sunny hillside and dug a deeper hole. The pangolin, which is covered with scales and lacks hair, has poor temperature regulation ability. It needs a relatively stable temperature environment to survive the cold and hot moments. This hole is its ideal residence today. If it feels comfortable, it will use this hole in the next week or two.

The pangolin rescued by Wild Youth Chen is resting in a soil cave｜Wild Youth Chen

Day after day, it searches for food within its home range of nearly 30 hectares in preparation for delivery. Finally, in January, it gave birth to a baby. The baby's claws are wrapped in a membrane to prevent scratching the mother during delivery. In order to provide enough milk, the pangolin mother goes out to find food again and again. Although the Chinese pangolin is active on the ground most of the time, it can also climb trees to eat arboreal ants. Relying on its powerful forelimbs, claws, and tail with coiling ability, the pangolin mother successfully climbed the tree for a full meal. It was a bit embarrassing when it came down from the tree. It grabbed the trunk and slid down, and finally fell directly. It shook its head, dragged its tail, left a trace on the wet soil, and returned to its cave.

Scientific illustration of a Chinese pangolin eating in a tree｜Wikimedia Commons

Suffering a catastrophe

However, this trace and the soil outside the cave betrayed the mother and son. A hunter discovered the cave and dug it up ruthlessly. There was only one exit and one chamber. The pangolin had nowhere to hide and could not escape. It could only use the trick to resist other predators and roll up into a ball. However, the defense that made it impossible for other animals to bite it became its most fatal weakness. Picking up this expensive "pine cone" and throwing it into the bag, the hunter continued to search forward. Even if he couldn't find other individuals, getting this mother and son would be a rich harvest.

In the past, these hunters would eat pangolins. However, as the black market price rises, they will sell pangolins to earn more money. Pangolins are believed to treat rheumatism and promote menstruation and lactation. Entertainment publicity will also drive market demand for pangolins. A few years ago, a big IP related to tomb robbing hyped up amulets made of pangolin claws. This thing, which was originally a fictional novel, has caused the cultural relics market to hype up pangolins.

Pangolins illegally traded in cages in Myanmar | Dan Bennett / Wikimedia Commons

However, when hunters drove by with shotguns in hand, the pangolins still maintained their habit of millions of years and rolled up into a "pine cone" - a "pine cone" that was fragile and about to be buried in boiling water.

There are already countless texts and images telling the tragedy of pangolins. Many experts and scholars have repeatedly emphasized that pangolin scales are made of keratin, which is the same as human toenails. Some traditional medicine circles also say that pig hoof nails can be used as a substitute for pangolin scales. However, many people still hold on to the obsession: pangolins are just different!

In 2017, Cameroon burned 3 tons of illegally traded pangolin scales. | US Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters / Wikimedia Commons

Over the past few decades, the number of Chinese pangolins has dropped by nearly 95%. This pangolin, which is the most widely distributed in China, once lived in 17 provinces and cities south of the Yangtze River and some areas north of the Yangtze River, including Shanghai. Now the distribution range has shrunk to 11 provinces, with about 64,000 individuals. Domestic resources have been exhausted, and some have begun to endanger the other three species of pangolins in Asia, and even the four species of pangolins in Africa are no exception. From 2000 to 2013, more than 1 million pangolins were killed and traded worldwide, becoming the most illegally traded mammal in the world. The species that lived alone in Africa for a million years met the endangered Chinese pangolin on the black market.

Pangolins are with us

A bigger lie and wishful thinking is to say "the pangolins I eat are farmed and eating them will not affect the wild population."

The breeding of pangolins is a worldwide problem. Pangolins have a special diet and are very prone to stress reactions. When stimulated, their immune, respiratory and digestive systems will become abnormal. Artificially bred pangolins have always faced the problems of high mortality and inability to reproduce. Regardless of the type of pangolin, there are currently only four institutions that can breed pangolins in captivity, located in India, Singapore and China. Among them, only the Taipei Zoo in China has bred pangolins to the third generation. Only by sparing manpower and financial resources, arranging the captive conditions to resemble wild habitats, and providing sufficient space for pangolins to behave normally, can they reproduce. It is simply a pipe dream to want to breed on a large scale to meet commercial needs.

A mother and baby pangolin at the Vietnam Pangolin Rescue Center | US Government Accountability Office / Wikimedia Commons

All eight species of pangolins are listed as threatened by the IUCN, most of which are endangered or critically endangered. Since 2017, all pangolins have been listed in Appendix I of CITES, prohibiting international trade. China, the country with the largest consumption, officially upgraded the Chinese pangolin, the Malayan pangolin, and the Indian pangolin to national first-class protected animals in June 2020.

We have to thank the researchers and conservationists who have been working on the front lines. Their years of hard work have made the public realize that pangolins are on the verge of extinction. More importantly, with the power of public opinion, policy makers have gradually changed their perceptions. The medical insurance issued in 2019 does not include pangolin slices and Chinese patent medicines. The "Chinese Pharmacopoeia" issued in 2020 will remove pangolins from the list. The country will no longer pay for the harm to endangered animals.

Chinese pangolins rescued in Zhejiang | Xie Hangkai

On April 25, 2020, in the mountains of Jiangxi, staff and volunteers from the Changsha Wildlife Conservation Association were nervously checking the data captured by infrared cameras. They spent four years investigating 16 counties and cities in Hunan and Jiangxi in search of pangolins, but they found nothing. Suddenly someone exclaimed: "This camera seems to have captured a pangolin!" Everyone uploaded the image to the computer and watched it repeatedly, and finally confirmed that it was a fast-moving pangolin. "Pangolin, we finally encountered it!"

When we were almost in despair, reports of pangolin observation and rescue came from Guangdong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian and Hainan. In some places, signs of pangolin reproduction were found. Some villagers who found pangolins no longer killed them, but reported them to the forestry department to let them go back to where they belonged. The fate of the Chinese pangolin is in jeopardy, but as sparks of hope emerge from all directions, more pangolin mothers and children will be spared from bad luck and no longer curl up into a helpless ball, using the hardness gained from millions of years of evolution to vainly fight against human wisdom and evil.

A South African pangolin curls itself into a ball. | Masteraah / Wikimedia Commons

Author: Li Binbin

This article comes from the Species Calendar, welcome to forward

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