It’s World Pangolin Day today (18th February) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has announced sightings of the most illegally trafficked wild mammal in the world. They have been spotted on camera trap images in the Philippines’ El Nido for the first time since the area was proposed as a protected area for the Critically Endangered species. Pangolins are extraordinary creatures but all eight species are threatened with extinction.
ZSL conservationists surveying the leafy forests of El Nido recorded the world’s only scaly mammal, so elusive it is rarely spotted on camera, scurrying over logs and foliage in search of a midnight snack of ants and termites.Â
The images have been shared as part of a growing body of evidence for the region to be designated an official pangolin conservation area, cared for in collaboration with the local community – part of ZSL’s work protecting species, a core focus for the conservation charity. Â
Pangolins are the most illegally traded wild mammal in the world, with all eight species being considered threatened with extinction due to demand for their meat and scales. Â
ZSL is working in the Philippines, Thailand, Cameroon, Nepal and the Philippines to protect pangolins through collaborating with local communities and authorities, and creating protected habitats where pangolins can thrive. Â
ZSL believes nature can recover, and that conservation is most effective when driven by science and innovation. The society calls for science to guide all global decisions on environment and biodiversity and build a healthier future for wildlife, people and the planet. Find out more and support ZSL’s world leading, collaborative science and conservation work at www.zsl.orgÂ
Operation Pangolin
In time for World Pangolin Day, an ambitious new plan to save the world’s most trafficked wild mammal has been announced – Operation Pangolin.
It will see an international team of researchers work in partnership with local stakeholders to develop pangolin-specific monitoring methods and interventions to prevent illegal offtake and trafficking of the species – the highest conservation priority for these mammals.
There are four core pillars to the project:
- monitoring of pangolin populations, including developing and deploying new technologies to do so;
- understanding the social-ecological systems in which pangolins are harvested, used and traded in key areas in Central Africa to inform locally-led sustainable conservation solutions;
- using insights from conservation criminology to prevent the illegal harvesting and trafficking of pangolins;
- using artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to unite diverse data streams to prevent wildlife crime involving pangolins, including through predictive approaches.
The researchers will work with local conservation stakeholders, including indigenous peoples, local communities and government agencies to deploy pangolin monitoring programmes, implement conservation interventions and develop predictive tools for addressing wildlife crime.
The project has launched in Cameroon and Gabon, Central Africa, with the support of a $4 million grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, with plans to expand into Nigeria soon. With further funding, the team hope to expand their efforts into Asia, the only other continent with native pangolin populations.
The collaborative research team involves specialists from the University of Oxford, Florida International University, the Arribada Initiative, the University of Maryland and the University of Southern California. They are being supported by the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux (Gabon’s national parks agency) to lead implementation efforts in Gabon and the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) to lead implementation in Cameroon. The project is supported by the IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group, a global network of 189 pangolin technical specialists.
Throughout history, pangolins have been sustainably harvested for their scales (used in Traditional Medicine in Africa and Asia) and for their meat. In recent decades, however, overexploitation has exploded despite national and international legal protections afforded to the species. With a likely large proportion of the illegal trade of their scales and meat going undetected, very little is known about the supply chains through which pangolins are trafficked. It is thought that as many as 8.5 million were removed from the wild in West and Central Africa for the illegal trade during the period 2014 – 2021.
You can learn more about the project on the Operation Pangolin website and follow the project’s progress on Twitter #OperationPangolin.
Main image credit: ZSL
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