Giant pangolins (Smutsia gigantea) are endangered because of deforestation and being hunted for bushmeat. But the solitary animals are also the world’s most-trafficked species because of a mistaken belief in China that their scales have medicinal qualities.
Pangolins are disappearing due to rampant trafficking, yet their story remains underreported. On March 27, 2025, Mongabay will host a webinar to help journalists improve their coverage of this crisis. Watch live on YouTube and LinkedIn.
Mongabay is bringing together experts to discuss the illegal pangolin trade and how it continues to thrive despite international protections. Journalists, conservationists, and researchers are invited to join our webinar on March 27, 2025, to gain insights into this critical issue. Live on YouTube and LinkedIn. Join us:
Pangolins face an existential threat due to illegal trafficking, yet their plight remains underreported. On March 27, 2025, Mongabay will host a webinar to equip journalists with the tools to investigate and report on the illegal pangolin trade effectively. Tune in on YouTube and LinkedIn to be part of the conversation.
As insectivorous, burrowing mammals, pangolins play a key role in our ecosystem by controlling insect populations, recycling soil nutrients and sheltering other animals in their abandoned burrows.
A recent study provides the first evidence of Chinese pangolins’ role as ecosystem engineers, whose burrows help restore biodiversity in forest patches gutted by fires.
By Spoorthy Raman
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/pangolin-burrows-are-biodiversity-magnets-in-burnt-forests-study-shows/
"A universal tagging system for pangolins, world’s most trafficked mammal"
Meek and gentle white-bellied #pangolins are ruthlessly hunted for their scales which have ZERO medicinal value. A growing threat is #palmoil 
and #tobacco 
#deforestation. Help them survive! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
http://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/18/white-bellied-pangolin-phataginus-tricuspis/
#Pangolins are scaly enigmas that fascinate people of all ages. All species face imminent extinction from #Chinese #medicine, the #pet trade and #deforestation. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife and halt deforestation. By @thenaturenook https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/22/the-plight-of-the-pangolin/ via @palmoildetect
"They are one of Singapore’s rarest animals, favouring forested areas and moving around only under the cloak of night.
But Sunda pangolins have been spotted in unusual places in recent years, including a busy university campus and even the streets of Katong.
Now, a first-of-its-kind study has shown that these incidents do not just make up the occasional sighting."
Missing dog rings doorbell, endangered baby pangolin born, woman pills resort for squirrels, and a kitten in a sun hat.
https://cutetropolis.com/2024/08/16/links-your-face-rings-a-bell/
Giant #pangolins rediscovered in #Senegal after quarter century
https://wildlife.org/giant-pangolins-rediscovered-in-senegal-after-quarter-century/
"The giant #pangolin is one of many species in the area believed to have disappeared from parts of their former range... Such rediscoveries underscore the critical value of West Africa’s large protected areas"
"In conjunction with World Pangolin Day on Feb 17, The Straits Times takes stock of national efforts to save the native mammal, which plays an important role in the ecosystem by controlling populations of ants and termites."
Such markets not only play a role in the spread of #disease: by selling poached, endangered animals such as #pangolins, they are pushing species toward #extinction.
Illegal #hunting and the #WildlifeTrade, like #ClimateChange and #HabitatDestruction, are among the causes of the dramatic global #extinction of species. In late 2019, a #UN report issued a stark #warning about the scope of the catastrophe,
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The #HuananSeafoodMarket, which offers an apalling variety of live and freshly slaughtered animals, is suspected to be the pandemic’s Ground Zero. According to genetic analyses, bats are the original hosts of the virus, but animals from the wildlife market may have transmitted them to humans.
In addition to seafood, the meat of 30 terrestrial animal species is available there, including #pangolins, #civets, #squirrels, #pheasants, #scorpions, #snakes and a variety of #rats.
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Long thought to be extinct in #Kenya, giant #pangolins are now being helped back from the brink - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/once-thought-extinct-giant-ground-pangolins-helped-back-from-brink-kenya-aoe <fingers crossed/>
A phylogeny of pangolins and a pangolin of phylogenies
https://academic.oup.com/jhered/article/109/4/347/4622594 Gaubert et al. 2018
https://github.com/hCoV-2019/pangolin
@ AineToole
How my life got flipped, turned upside down. I became the most non-human trafficked animal for my keratin scales.
In the burrows of hollow trees is where I used to spend most of my days, eating bugs with my elongated tongue.
Then a couple of guys who were up to no good, started poaching everything in my neighbourhood.
My homie was hunted, but my mum made it through, she said ‘you’re moving with your auntie & uncle to live in the zoo.’
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