This animal with more than 200 homes that can guard 450 mu of forest is being eaten to extinction

When people talk about pangolins

most will think of "him" from the TV series "Journey to the East":

or of it from "Calabash Brothers":

In reality

the real pangolin looks like this.

As a burrowing animal of the order Pholidota,

the pangolin has trained since birth

a peerless skill for digging burrows and holes.

Research shows that

each pangolin may have 200 hiding places,

sheltering in different spots every day,

simply the "emperor" of the burrowing world!

The wily rabbit with its three burrows is nothing compared to this.

However, digging is only one of the pangolin's skills.

In the animal kingdom, it can be considered an "all-around master,"

climbing trees, entering water, attacking, defending, capable of anything.

What is truly formidable about it

is that coat of brown keratin scales,

from which its name is also derived.

These scales closely resemble the armor of ancient soldiers,

and their hardness even exceeds that of armor,

and it is said that small-caliber rifles have difficulty piercing them.

So, when a pangolin encounters danger,

it immediately curls itself into a "ball,"

and even sharp-toothed carnivores can do nothing about it.

Neither sharp teeth nor claws can do anything to the pangolin

If a lion encounters it

it can only look utterly defeated:

It can also "turn defense into offense."

When it encounters a large carnivore,

the pangolin will control its muscles

to make its scales perform a slicing motion,

cutting the enemy's mouth.

A soft and cute inner self, gentle and shy

Although it has a warrior-like hard exterior,

its inner self is gentle and shy.

Its eyes are small, and its eyesight is poor.

During the day, it usually hides in underground burrows or tree hollows,

occasionally appearing in trees,

and of course, most of the time it is sound asleep,

only going out at night to be active,

relying on a keen sense of smell to find food.

Pangolins usually go about alone,

and only during the mating season do they go

to seek another "right pangolin."

Because their numbers are few, it is hard to find others of the same kind,

so for a pangolin,

meeting the right him/her is truly very rare.

Having finally encountered a pangolin of the opposite sex,

they lock eyes and complete mating,

and a single litter can only produce one baby.

For this hard-won baby,

they cherish it dearly,

and when the baby can no longer walk, they carry it on their backs.

Pangolins are gentle by nature,

their claws have no killing power and are only suited for digging,

and they do not even have teeth in their mouths,

relying only on a long tongue to obtain food.

The moment it is caught, it is already "dead"

What would it feel like to have cement poured into your body?

This is not a plot from a gangster film,

but something that truly happens to pangolins.

There is a documentary called "Chasing Scales,"

in 16 minutes,

showing the world

the "tip of the iceberg" of the underground pangolin trade.

Just this one tip

is already enough to make one's heart tremble.

In the documentary,

as informants,

wildlife protection advocates Ning Zhijie and Yiyun

help the police catch poaching criminals.

During their undercover investigation, they learned that

in order to seek more profit,

criminals often pour cement or water into pangolins

to make them gain several jin in weight.

Pangolins that have been pumped full of mud slurry are very prone to organ failure.

Even if they are rescued,

their chances of survival are very low.

It can be said that

at the moment these pangolins are caught,

they have already been "sentenced to death."

In the documentary, the two rescued pangolins

could no longer move on their own.

The pangolin is a national second-class protected animal.

According to the provisions of our country's criminal law,

illegally hunting or killing

precious,endangered wild animals under special state protection,

or illegally purchasing, transporting, or selling

precious,

endangered wild animals under special state protectionand their products,

will be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or criminal detention,

and also fined.

If the circumstances are especially serious, the sentence is fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years,

and also a fine or confiscation of property.

Faced with such severe legal punishment,

who gave criminals such nerve?

This all stems from humans' inexplicable beliefs and demands.

Pangolins are good at digging holes,

so many people believe they have the miraculous effect of soothing meridians and activating collaterals,

and can also "promote lactation."

Therefore, people with the above needs,

even if they cannot get pangolin meat,

will still get some pangolin scales and grind them into powder to take.

In some areas of southern China,

some people superstitiously believe that eating wild animals can provide a "great tonic,"

and others, in order to show off, think "the more endangered, the more they eat."

As a result, pangolins have been reduced to a dish on the table.

With these demands,

criminals, in order to seek wealth,

do not hesitate to take desperate risks.

In addition to being hunted and killed,

drastic changes in their living environment

have also caused a sharp decline in the pangolin population.

Pangolins like to live in hilly areas

in broad-leaved and mixed broad-leaved-coniferous forest belts,

It has a narrow diet and adapts very poorly to environmental change.

Once its habitat is destroyed,

its population declines rapidly.

Because of its unusual habits,

the pangolin cannot be kept in captivity,

and captive breeding has never succeeded to date.

China's pangolin resources are nearing depletion,

so criminals have turned their sights abroad.

China consumes about 300,000 pangolins each year,

and possibly more in recent years,

with more than 95% of them coming from abroad.

You should know

that these pangolins from abroad are all illegal.

For live pangolins seized in China,

the usual strategy is to release them into the wild,

but in recent years, the pangolins smuggled into the country

have mostly been Southeast Asian or even African species.

If they are released without strict species identification,

the genetic contamination this causes

also seriously threatens

the genetic integrity of the Chinese pangolin.

According to data from the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species,

over the past 21 years,

China's pangolin population has fallen by 90%;

Dr. Zeng Yan of the Institute of Zoology,

Chinese Academy of Sciences, provides even more pessimistic information:

"From the 1960s to 2004,

the number of Chinese pangolins

in China fell by 89% to 94%";

a 2008 survey showed

that China's pangolin population

"is roughly between 25,100 and 49,450."

As early as 2014,

the pangolin was classified by the International Union

for Conservation of Nature as a "critically endangered" animal.

How serious is the situation?

In 2016, the giant panda was already "downgraded" to "vulnerable,"

while the pangolin faces an even greater threat than the giant panda!

The pangolin,

does it really have those miraculous powers?

In fact, pangolin meat has no medicinal value at all,

and according to the Compendium of Materia Medica,

pangolin meat is toxic.

Pangolin scales do have medicinal value,

and using them as medicine has a long history in China.

In the Song Dynasty, there are records of their use in gynecological treatment.

It should be noted

that their range of use is very narrow:

in traditional Chinese medicine,

pangolin scales are only used to treat insufficient lactation,

and substitutes can be found with ease.

Zhang Dayong, director of the Institute of Ecology

at the College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, said:

some preliminary clinical trials have shown

that pig toenails and pangolin scales show no significant difference

in certain medical effects.

Pangolins carry large numbers of parasites and viruses,

and humans who eat pangolins face enormous risks.

A police officer revealed

that to make transport easier and give them a good "appearance,"

smugglers inject pangolins with sedatives;

if the pangolins are dead,

they inject preservatives to keep them from rotting;

and to make more money,

they also feed the pangolins heavy metals.

A pangolin "loaded with four poisons" like this,

would you dare to eat it?

The pangolin population has plummeted,

and humans have already tasted the bitter consequences.

At present, China's forests are moving toward artificially purified plantations,

where termites are more likely to run rampant.

Without the pangolin,

the only thing people can rely on

is highly toxic pesticides.

Source: Outlook Think Tank (ID: zhczyj)

Supervisors: Liu Hong, Chen Jingchun

Editor: Wang Shuai

Proofreader: Cai Mengxiao

Featured content