Picture: Supplied
Six suspects suspected of being part of a pangolin poaching syndicate will appear in the Midrand Magistrate’s Court today after they were caught red-handed with a captured animal earlier this week. On Wednesday, a sting operation lead by the Hawks’ wildlife trafficking team and the Pretoria-based national intervention unit, along with Pangolin Africa, which is attached to the University of Pretoria, and Midrand detectives resulted in the arrest of six suspects at Kyalami Corner. Professor Ray Jansen, the founder of Pangolin Africa, said this was the fourth pangolin bust this year. “The first was in Kempton Park at beginning of.
Pangolins pushed to the brink of extinction
26 Feb 2021
A pangolin skin is displayed amongst other exotic and illegal animal parts at a stall on February 17, 2016 in Mong La, Myanmar. Mong La, the capital of Myanmar s Special Region No. 4, is a mostly lawless area where Chinese tourists are able to cross the border for exotic poached animals, gambling, and prostitution. (Photo by Taylor Weidman/Getty Images)
Time is running out to save the imperilled and enigmatic pangolin from certain extinction.
“If something isn’t done within the very small window we have right now, I think all species are going to be faced with a certain level of extinction,” said Ray Jansen, the founder and chairperson of the African Pangolin Working Group. He estimates that only about 20 years remain to safeguard them.
weekly newspaper.
It has been a big year for the pangolin: the glaring stage light of Covid-19 has fallen on this shy, scaly mammal as the possible source of the virus that has brought the world to its knees.
In February last year, Daily Maverick broke the story linking pangolins as the likeliest vector of Covid-19 via bats to humans. The exact source has not been confirmed yet, but the attention, though it comes from panic and fear, might be the best thing that ever happened to what has been called “the most trafficked mammal you’ve never heard of”.
Lesser-known facts about the ancient, ghostly pangolin Nica Richards
Picture: Michel Bega Trying to get the number of wild pangolins ‘is like trying to count a ghost – it is almost impossible’.
Pangolins are some of the worldâs oldest inhabitants, but illegal trade may see a species that has called earth home for at least 84 million years disappear.Â
They may look like amphibians, but pangolins are mammals, covered in tough, overlapping scales. But underneath their hard exterior, they have soft, slightly furry bellies.Â
Tot the pangolin is held by wildlife rehabilitation specialist Nicci Wright of the Johannesburg Wildlife Vet Hospital, 19 February 2021, in Johannesburg, during a measuring and weighing procedure. Saturday 20 February 2021 is Wor
Too early to know if pangolins spread Covid-19, say experts – The Citizen citizen.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from citizen.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.