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Xiahou Dun
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July 14, 2010, 9:48 am
Pity the Toothless Pangolin
<!-- date updated --> <!-- <abbr class="updated" title="2010-07-14T10:34:56+00:00">— Updated: 10:34 am</abbr> --> <!-- Title -->
<!-- Byline --><address class="byline author vcard">By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
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Agence France-Presse — Getty Images An endangered pangolin, which many Chinese value for its meat and for its scales.
Chinese customs officials in southern Guangdong Province have intercepted a boat with a grisly illegal cargo: nearly eight tons of frozen pangolin carcasses (2,090 of them!) as well as 4,000 pounds of scales stripped from their bodies. Six traffickers posing as fishermen had been paid to transport the pangolins from Southeast Asia, part of the animal’s native habitat, to China.
Most Americans are probably unfamiliar with the pangolin, a toothless scaly anteater that lives in the forests of Asia; it plays an important role in ant and termite control. Many Chinese prize the animal because its meat is considered a delicacy. And its scales are used to make traditional medicines that are purported to benefit women who are nursing, among other things.
That has led to a precipitous decline in the pangolin’s numbers. Two of the four Asian pangolin species are classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. And international trade in all four species is banned under Cites (pronounced SIGHT-ees), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
But there is big money in the illegal animal trade, and conservation groups say the smugglers have developed elaborate strategies for evading detection. The “fishermen,” who were all arrested, said they had been hired to pick up the animal cargo in Southeast Asia and were instructed by satellite phone to deliver it to another vessel that would then take it to its destination in China.
“The use of satellite phones and trans-shipment of cargo at sea are indicative of the increasingly sophisticated methods being used by the organized criminal gangs involved in wildlife crime,” said James Compton, the Asia Pacific coordinator of Traffic, a group that works against illegal animal trade. The Chinese government has seized more than 25 tons of smuggled animal parts since 2007, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.
Rare animals in general are regarded as a culinary delicacy in some circles, particularly in southern China. When I was a correspondent in China, I once interviewed a businessman who favored rare meats. “When you go to a zoo and see a new animal, don’t you wonder what it tastes like?” he asked. Not me.
