Pangolins: Mystery Creature

Pangolins might look like an ancestor to the dinosaur with its uniquely scaly body. To my surprise pangolins are actually mammals. Before reading this article on CNN change the list program by John D. Sutter, I have never heard of pangolins. I found this article to be incredibly interesting and eye opening especially at the point in the article that expressed “Pangolins could go extinct before most people realize it exists”.  This one sentence stuck with me throughout the reading of pangolins. There were so many eye opening facts about pangolins. One of which being the price of pangolins. From hunters, traders, and restaurants, pangolins range from $22 to $350 per kilo for their scales, blood, and meat. The fact that pangolins are trafficked more than tigers and rhinos put together is also very intriguing. I was pleased to see that the Vietnamese government announced that pangolins are now the highest category of legal protection, banning any use, sale or possession of live or dead pangolin. The maximum penalty is caught with a pangolin is $25,000 or seven years in prison. This shows everyone the severity of the issue. There are many things that justify the use of pangolins; however, I believe that the lack of knowledge of pangolins is a much bigger problem. Until more information is found out about this creature and it’s ecological benefit, trafficking of pangolins must be halted. I believe that educating everyone about this issue is very important for the health and well-being of pangolins. From my understanding from the reading and video, people have no clue that pangolins are going extinct and educating individuals would be the first step in helping the pangolins in the wild.

Here is a PDF article I found that has information about pangolins in captivity and their diet.

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/227663626_History_and_dietary_husbandry_of_pangolins_in_captivity/file/e0b4952c7215e4e13a.pdf

(Copy and paste this link into a tab and it will download a PDF file).