Eating a pangolin’s scales is similar to eating one’s own toenails”

The word pangolin comes from the Malaysian word “penggulung” which translates as “rolling” which is derived from the pangolin’s self-defense technique of curling up into a ball when threatened.

The pangolin is the only mammal in the world with scales but is without teeth and which digests food in the stomach using keratinous spines.

There are eight species of pangolins worldwide, with four species found in Asia and four species in Africa. But they can be distinguished by observing their hair, with scales only being found in Asian varieties.

Pangolins have a tongue that is especially long — longer than its head and body combines. In addition, it is sticky in order to just catch insects.

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It is estimated that a pangolins eat around 23,000 ants and insects on the ground to the extent that they help to eliminate at least seven million ants and insects per year.

Presently, pangolins are considered to be the mammals (that raise their offspring by milk) that are the most smuggled in the world with an estimated one million of them hunted in the wild over the past 10 years.

The scales of the pangolin are in high demand for traditional medicine, while their meat can also be a strange food for some groups of people.

Deputy of the Southeast Asia Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Petch Manopawitr said that nowadays there were very few studies about pangolins and the data about this poor animal was limited. However, statistics for the capture of pangolins from each raid on the smuggling trade were not low.

“Previously, we often heard that merchants had sneakily obtained pangolins, some of which came from Malaysia and some from Indonesia, with Thailand being the point of transit on their way to the countries of the customers. But later they became harder to find in Malaysia and Indonesia and merchants looked to a new source of the animals, namely from Africa,” he said.

“But Thailand still remains as the transit point for the smuggling of pangolins to third countries so it can be presumed that perhaps this is because in Thailand there may be secret customers who sneakily buy pangolin meat to serve to foreign tourists such as the Chinese. Recently, a Chinese restaurant in the centre of Bangkok was found to have had a special menu with a pangolin meat hot pot to serve to Chinese tourists which reflects that the demand for this meat has not reduced,” Mr Petch said.

“In cracking down on the smuggling of pangolins, I wish you could see how cruel it is and how the animals suffer. Many times we have seen that the crate is not large but there are a hundred pangolins or so crammed inside, without water or food for three or four days and travelling from place to place. Worse than that, the catchers also stuff the pangolin with flour to increase their weight so as to increase their price. Some pangolins are mothers with a baby child with them and they were captured together. This is very pitiful and some female officers, when they see this, cannot hold back their tears, especially when they see the innocent little pangolin’s eyes,” the Deputy of the Southeast Asia Group of the IUCN said.

Mr Petch said that Hong Kong had reportedly seized up to 4.4 tons of pangolin remains that were packed in plastic. The illegal business of the smuggling of pangolins generates multi-million dollar revenues every year. Pangolins have become a new symbol of hunting and they have to be protected like elephants and rhinoceroses, he said.

Now, all eight species of pangolins are threatened to become extinct and they appear in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild (Cites) Appendix 1 which means that international trade is strictly prohibited. The two species of pangolin found in Thailand, the Sunda pangolin and the Chinese pangolin, are “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species.

Although many countries have laws to protect pangolins, this does not stop the efforts to hunt and to smuggle this wonderful creature.

Deputy Director General of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation of the Ministry of National Resources and Environment Pinsak Suraswadi said that throughout 2016 and until October 2017 National Park and Wildlife officials nationwide could catch and arrest 40 suspects of smuggling as many as 870 pangolins weighing a total of 1,489.6 kilograms.

“The majority of the pangolins that we seize will die with fewer than 10% surviving because they experience heavy traumatization during transportation, becoming dehydrated and starved because we understand that the smugglers do not care whether they will survive or not because they essentially want the scales. We have heard that on the black market the scales of a pangolin are worth 10,000 baht,” Mr Pinsak said.

Animal doctor of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Dr Pattarapol Maneeon said that currently eating pangolins was still popular in neighboring countries which often used their meat for cooking with strong spices as a deodorant. But I have to say that frankly pangolin meat is not so tasty or nutritious, according to academics or science.

The belief that its medicinal properties increase sexual performance or act as “Yah Dope” is a false belief since pangolin meat does not increase sexual performance but this is probably due to other ingredients that are mixed in with the pangolin meat that have these properties. As for the scales of the pangolins that are usually stewed until they decompose with other seasoning, the taste is not good and if it is eaten it is the same as eating one’s own toenails.

Dr. Pattarapol said that the majority of pangolins come from neighboring countries, which are still not defined as wildlife reserves such as in Thailand so this allows people to catch or hunt by burning fires or bringing dogs in to bark. Pangolins will coil themselves up into circles by instinct before being caught in the forest. Then the captured pangolins will be smuggled into Thailand for transit to other countries but Thailand has a law to protect wild animals so we will continue to see news reports about catching pangolins in the news.

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