In Thailand’s third pangolin bust of the year, another 111 of the animals have been seized in a major sting on an illegal trading operation.
Want to learn more about pangolins? Check out this comprehensive list!
Suited in an armor of beautifully colored scales, Africa’s Long-tailed pangolin (Uromanis tetradactyla) is the smallest and most arboreal of all of the world’s eight pangolin species.
The Cape Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) is one of the larger and more terrestrial of Africa’s four pangolin species.
The three-cusped pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) gets its name from a unique feature found on their brown, keratinous scales: each one has three points (or keels) on the exposed edge – kind of like a Douglas Fir pine cone!
Nearly a year after being busted, two men in Malaysia have been convicted of illegally possessing pangolins and it seems having an ‘elderly mother’ to take care of may have won them both a more lenient sentencing.
A driver transporting a new car from a showroom in northern India was quite surprised when he discovered a rare creature stowed away in the chassis of the vehicle.
Nepalese police arrested two men found smuggling seven kilograms of pangolin scales in Nepal only days after Palawan officials apprehended three Chinese nationals running an illicit pangolin trade operation out of their ‘junk shop’ front business.
A 32 year-old man has been arrested by Thai Customs officials, after he was found driving a vehicle loaded with 180 pangolins — at least the fourth such bust of 2012 globally.
01/13/2012: Check out the update on this story here.
As of this writing, the above could be found here: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/499471942/Pangolin_Scales.html
A search for the term “pangolin” on a major eCommerce website yields some shocking and appalling results: The endangered animals’ flesh and scales are openly listed for sale.
And if that’s not shocking enough, who owns the website may be even more disturbing. Read more