Rare Pangolin Surprises Urban Residents

A female pangolin was rescued after straying into an urbanized area of coastal Neelankarai and making her way into a garden.

Unfortunately, the rapid development of the Neelankarai area is crowding into the surrounding wildlife habitat, and has required the recent rescue of many small animals by forest department officials. However, this was the first time a pangolin had been rescued from someone’s home, according the the Times of India.

The pangolin apparently climbed up a compound wall in order to get into the home’s garden. Officials from the animal rescue and rehabilitation center in Velachery were called, and were surprised to find the pangolin in such a populated area. One of the wildlife officers told TOI that there is a population of pangolins at nearby Guindy National Park.

The pangolin was taken to the animal rescue center and is to be released, presumably at Guindy National Park.

All pangolin species are in decline

According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, all eight species of pangolin are experiencing decreasing populations. Two species, the Chinese Pangolin and the Sunda Pangolin, are endangered, due to an unfortunate belief that pangolin meat, scales, and body parts have medicinal properties. Even the pangolin fetus is cooked whole in a soup.

The rescued pangolin was most likely an Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata), currently classified as near threatened. However, experts fear the Indian pangolin will soon be classified as endangered, as other Asian species become increasingly rare as a result of exploitation:

The species can adapt to modified habitats, although a large proportion of its range has high human population density. The principal factor affecting the species is exploitation, largely for meat and for medicinal purposes, with the scales thought to have aphrodisiac properties. Trade in Manis crassicaudata parts appears to be mostly at a subsistence or local level, with little international trade currently reported …

There is evidence that the species is being severely impacted by hunting in India and at the same time its status in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka appears to be decreasing. Given the level of trade that appears to be occurring in other Asian pangolin species (especially Manis javanica and Manis pentadactyla), it is reasonable to assume that as these two species become rarer and more difficult to obtain, that more trade could shift to Manis crassicaudata

Recent pangolin seizures in Asia have revealed that the slaughter of these shy creatures to meet the growing demands of mainland China is driving them ever closer to extinction.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons