- World Pangolin Day is celebrated on the 3rd Saturday in February and in 2019 was on February 16.
- It was the 8th annual World Pangolin Day and to raise awareness of the plight of pangolins.
- Pangolins are the most trafficked mammal in the world, with conservative estimates suggesting that at least 10,000 pangolins are trafficked each year. Despite this conservation crisis, many people have never even heard of them.
- Due to obsession for its supposedly medicinal scales in China is believed to have made the ant-eating Chinese Pangolin, one of two species found in South Asia, extinct in India.
- According to the officials, the Chinese Pangolin was officially categorised as critically endangered in 2014, but it might have extinct today. The Indian Pangolin, marked endangered that year, is now critically endangered and disappearing fast.
- According to the Hindu, investigations by wildlife crime sleuths have revealed that almost 90% of smuggling of pangolin and pangolin scales is through the northeast.
About Pangolin
- The word ‘pangolin’ comes from the Malay word ‘penggulung’, which means ‘one that rolls up’.
- There are eight pangolin species worldwide, four Asian and four African. They are all threatened species and listed in the IUCN Red List as either Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered.
- Chinese pangolin, Manis pentadactyla – Critically Endangered
- Indian pangolin / thick-tailed pangolin, Manis crassicaudata – Endangered
- Sunda pangolin / Malayan pangolin, Manis javanica – Critically Endangered
- Philippine pangolin, Manis culionensis – Endangered
- Tree pangolin / white-bellied pangolin, Phataginus tricuspis – Vulnerable
- Long-tailed pangolin / black-bellied pangolin, Phataginus tetradactyla – Vulnerable
- Giant pangolin / giant ground pangolin, Smutsia gigantica – Vulnerable
- Cape pangolin / ground pangolin / Temminck’s ground pangolin / South African pangolin / steppe pangolin, Smutsia temminckii – Vulnerable
- It is the most trafficked mammal in the world.
- A pangolin tongue is longer than its body.
- It can consume 70 million ants in a year
- Pangolins have no teeth, they chew with gravels and keratinous spines inside the stomach.
Its #WorldPangolinDay They are the worlds only scaly mammal & infamous for being the most illegally trafficked animal in the world. In a recent seizure 8tons of scales were found representing 14000 animals even though there is a intl. ban, the trade is still flourishing. pic.twitter.com/k1WNJV5q3L
— Kirsty (@kirstmyron) February 16, 2019
