Fourteen tons of pangolin scales were seized in Singapore, in what has been described as the largest seizure of this small anteater, a victim of smuggling because of its meat and scales used in traditional Asian medicine.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Fourteen tons of pangolin scales were seized in Singapore, in what has been described as the largest seizure of this small anteater, a victim of smuggling because of its meat and scales used in traditional Asian medicine.
As we know, they are mammals and their body is covered with scales that form a hard shell. But if they manage to defend themselves from predators, the same cannot be said for humans. In Singapore, the latest customs operation demonstrates how smuggling is a flourishing phenomenon: fourteen tons of scales were seized together with 400 kilos of ivory.
According to Paul Thomson, an official of the Pangolin Specialist Group, an organization belonging to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 26 pangolins were killed for this shipment.
This anteater is the busiest illegally trafficked in the world, an estimated 300 per day end up in the wrong hands. For this, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has declared all eight pangolin species "At risk of extinction" since 2014, while two species are in serious danger.
According to Singapore customs officials, the scales traveled from Nigeria to Vietnam, which is the second most profitable black market after China, because pangolins are also eaten here. In traditional medicine, the scales are used against rheumatism or skin diseases and mixed with wine or taken into powder.
Although international laws prohibit the trafficking of all pangolin species, the continuing seizures show a very different reality. Let's not forget that 33 tons of this animal's meat were seized last February.
International laws prohibit the trafficking of all pangolin species, and techniques such as forensic fingerprinting try to deter poachers, but recent seizures have shown that pangolin is still heavily trafficked around the world.
Read also:
- Pangolins, here are the most illegally trafficked mammals in the world (VIDEO)
- Pangolin: what it is and why it is in grave danger
Dominella Trunfio
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