Being one of the endangered animals as categorized by the International Union for the conservation of Nature, Pangolins continue to face a huge poaching threat that the hard scale covered animals are feared to reach extinction in the next few centuries if less effort is undertaken to curb the vice.
Due to numerous incidences of poachers and collection companies conniving and escalating pangolin loss within the East African region, there has been long awaited need to find a lasting solution to this.
The latest of good news concerning this is that some conservation authorities won’t see this continue happening. The Kenya Wildlife Service, Pangolin Foundation and Africa Wildlife Foundation among other partners are set to study, monitor and secure Pangolins from their awaited extinction in the near future.
The conservation programme has been set up mainly to raise awareness about the mammal. This is key given the fact that Pangolin scales are sort to be sources of medicine which medicinal values can still be gotten through other avenues.
“Pangolins need serious and elaborate monitoring system,” KWS Tsavo Conservation senior assistant director Robert Njue said.
The director added that those who might be tempted to poach pangolins may be coming from far. Therefore the local populations ought to be made aware of the danger poaching for pangolin scales poses to their immediate community.
Africa Wildlife Foundation Tsavo Mkomanzi landscape manager Maurice Nyaligu said pangolins play a critical role in the wildlife food chain as burrowing animals.
“There is a need to establish their population status for proper measures aimed at securing them,” he added.
In June, China banned the use of pangolin parts as traditional medicine, a move that the government lauded. China omitted the use of pangolin scales in its 2020 list of approved traditional medicine, a reprieve to the most trafficked animal.
Tourism CS Najib Balala said, “This is a step in the right direction and we hope it will ultimately lead to the complete ban wildlife usage in traditional medicine. This guarantees that the species, which are nearly extinct, will at least now have room to breed and repopulate.”
Pangolins are shy, burrowing nocturnal mammals that are covered in tough, overlapping scales. The species vary in size from about 1.6kg to a maximum of about 33kg. They mainly eat ants and termites using an extraordinarily long, sticky tongue and are able to quickly roll themselves up into a tight ball when threatened. Their scales are made from keratin, the same protein that forms human hair and fingernails.
Large concentrations of giant pangolins and tree pangolins are found in Uganda, Tanzania and Western Kenya and parts of the Kenyan Coast. In Asia, their existence is, however, being threatened as they are believed to have curative properties, and their meat is highly regarded.
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 pangolins are consumed each year in Asia for their scales and meat.
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