Monitored by a conservationist, a young pangolin slurped ants with a long tongue near a veterinary hospital that became a temporary home after the animal was found near the body of its mother, killed by a jolt from an electric fence. The six-month-old scaly anteater foraged on a hillside, building up strength in a tiny step for a campaign to save one of the world’s most heavily trafficked mammals.
Traffickers often sell the pangolin meat locally and ship the scales for use in traditional medicine in Asia, mainly China. The growing illegal industry has prompted plans in South Africa for a rehabilitation center for sick or rescued pangolins as well as the deployment of sniffer dogs specially trained to detect the scales’ pungent aroma.
Africa’s four species of pangolins are under increasing pressure from poachers because Asia’s four species have been decimated, according to experts. While commercial trade in all eight species is forbidden, international confiscations of African pangolin scales amounted to about 47 tons in 2017, more than double the quantity seized in the previous year, said the African Pangolin Working Group , a conservation organization based in South Africa.
“The rate of escalation is astounding,” said Eric Ichikowitz, director of a South African foundation.
The Ichikowitz Family Foundation , which has previously trained dogs to detect rhino horn, has funded the training of several dogs that will check for hidden pangolin scales at South African borders, Ichikowitz said.
The foundation has also acquired land near Johannesburg for construction of a…
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