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If you are a pangolin and you want to avoid extinction, being of one species or another will make little difference. In all cases, your days are numbered. And it is that extinction is just around the corner when you are one of the curious little animals that are included under the name of manis.
Now, however, they have extra protection. Maybe he was late. Hopefully not, but the doubts are more than logical, since it is one of the animals with the most trafficked on the planet. The prohibition of its hunting around the world is also accompanied by a mission that corresponds to conservationists: to make it known to prevent its extinction.
A serious decline
For years the Asian species was believed to be the most vulnerable, but the numbers are dramatic for all of them. It has been warned by experts since the first World Conference on Pangolin Conservation, held in mid-2013 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Species Survival Commission (IUCN-SSC).
Its main threat? Poaching, and many times also its capture. If it is the mammal that suffers the most from clandestine trafficking, the pangolin takes the cake. Indeed, it is the mammal that suffers the most from smuggling all over the planet and it is precisely for this reason that it is on the tightrope.
Maximum protection, to no avail
Their difficult situation was discussed at the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Wild Species (CITES) held in Johannesburg (South Africa), attended by its 183 member states.
After analyzing his situation and discussing possible measures for 12 days, it was decided to grant him the highest degree of protection, prohibiting the international trade of the pangolin, considering it in serious danger of extinction. Before, it was only on the list of vulnerable species.
The news has been greeted with enthusiasm by conservationists. "This is a great success and good news for one of the most threatened species in the world," said through a statement the spokeswoman for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Ginette Hemley.
On the one hand, "this total protection rules out any question related to their legal trade and makes it more difficult for traffickers to hunt them down, since they will be punished more severely," he concludes.
However, protection on paper will do little in practice. Conservationists know them well, and precisely for this reason they point out that their best guarantee for survival is none other than achieve greater visibility.
Objective: stop their slaughter
One of the main problems in stopping their slaughter is their secrecy. Not because the hunt is carried out stealthily, but because apart from it it is not a known species. Not as much as others that also suffer from it, which is an added inconvenience.
Thus, compared to other species with which it is trafficked, much more "emblematic", such as elephants or rhinos, the pangolin is a relatively unknown animal. To be sure, for example, the general public is not as aware of its drama, and even researchers are unable to give a reliable estimate of the world's population.
What is clear is the importance of stopping their slaughter. If it is not achieved, experts warn that the result will also be detrimental to ecosystems, since its disappearance will alter the balance of the habitat of tropical forests. In particular, an excessive increase in the populations of ants and termites, their food, is expected.
One figure is well known, the one that accounts for the massacre they are suffering. Only the species that have been on the Red List since 2014, that is, the four species of the Asian pangolin, add up to more than one million animals sold illegally in the last decade.
They are estimates from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). Skipping the international ban, therefore, is more than proven to be the norm, although its extension can only be considered excellent news.
Without being enough, not even remotely, it does show that concern for the issue exists, at least at the conservation level. Despite some that other subsequent bans in different nationals, including also in China, illegal hunting continues.
Bring the pangolin out of the shade
Its different species make it an animal difficult to describe, but even so it can be affirmed without fear that it is one of the rarest animals that exist. It is, therefore, a unique animal in the world and at the same time suffers the massacre of poaching, especially for its use in traditional Asian medicine.
His shyness is one of the reasons he is an easy prey. Hunters take advantage of your reaction when threatened. They are rolled into a ball and that is when they are placed in a bag, without further complications.
Then, they travel the same Asian smuggling routes as rhinoceros horns, but the media denouncement of the terrible scourge that weighs on this species is often forgotten. In the shade, an ideal breeding ground for illegal trade to explode.
Tons of meat, bones, skins and various organs are regularly discovered at customs, either in suitcases or in trucks that cross customs. Above all, in Asian regions, although they are also found in many other countries, such as the United States or in customs in European countries, usually bound for China or Vietnam.
If you want to read more articles similar to The pangolin needs to get 'famous' to avoid extinctionWe recommend that you enter our category of Endangered Animals.
