The world's most-trafficked mammal - and the scaliest (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Martin Fletcher
Vietnam

The gentle, solitary pangolin has a tongue as long as its body and curls into a ball when threatened. It is also the world's most trafficked mammal, and threatened with extinction.
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The pangolin is the only mammal wholly covered in scales, and it simply curls itself into an impregnable ball when threatened by predators.
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The reason many of us have never heard of pangolins is because they seldom survive in captivity. Only six zoos in the world - and only one in Europe, Leipzig - have any.
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While the media focuses on the plight of the elephant and the rhinoceros, the celebrities of the natural world, roughly 100,000 pangolins a year are being snatched from the wild and sent to China and Vietnam. In both those countries their meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are deemed to have magical medicinal properties.

Already there are no pangolins left in great swathes of South East Asia, so Africa's pangolin populations are now being plundered. All eight species are threatened with extinction.



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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30833685

http://www.savevietnamswildlife.org/
http://savepangolins.org/



Read to the end of the article -- if you have a strong stomach and have taken your blood pressure meds.

Lots of warnings about pangolin smuggling have been posted at DU (by me and others): https://www.google.com/search?q=pangolin&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&gws_rd=ssl

[BlueCaliDem]

1. Heartbreaking. My god, but humans are a PLAGUE to this Earth and her creatures.

With the variety of meat we already have, why on EARTH do we need to look to other animals for a food source that clearly aren't necessary to our survival?? This is insane!

[ladjf]

3. The human race is too greedy and stupid to survive much longer. And, we are taking

down other animals and plant along with us. We have "infested" the Earth.

[BlueCaliDem]

4. I have to agree. We ARE an infesting and invading species seemingly determined to destroy our

habitat any which way we can - all in the name of profit. UGH!

[2naSalit]

5. Our level of adaptability

will eventually be our undoing and we seem tocare little that we are destroying the ability of most other species with us when we finally fall off the cliff.

[ladjf]

6. Well said.

It seems to me that our most dangerous trait is the strong tendency to use subject rather than objective processes to determine our realities.

If one allows themselves to construct philosophies of living based upon "whims" , disaster ,i.e. annihilation will eventually occur sooner than necessary.

[2naSalit]

7. We do seem to be our own worst enemy

when it comes to our survival. After rereading my comment I see i got ahead of my typing a bit. I did mean to indicate that we are not only killing ourselves but a host of other species as well but I see you got it anyway.

I find it interesting that those who rail against "environmentalists" and all the other words they use indicating that they are traitorous and vile humans unworthy of respect yet they completely miss the part where the environment is a collective commons. Environmental activists are more altruistic in nature since what the message is regards all life forms not just me and my kin.

[ladjf]

9. You are an excellent writer and thinker.

I will continue to watch for your posts.

I would like to add another comment about our human behavior.

Certain evolutionary developments in our physical makeup, particularly in the brain, granted us some great potentials for abstract thinking. However, the speed in which the changes took place didn't prepare us for the downside of being able to think in the abstract. Consequently, we and
the other life forms on Earth are suffering from the mistakes we are making. In other words,
we haven't learned how to use our enhanced abilities as yet. The hope is that we will
"wise up" in time to save us all.

Of course , ultimately, the Sun will extinguish all life on Earth. But, that's probably 7 or 8 billion years from now so we needn't worry too much about that.

[2naSalit]

10. Perhaps we have been

so focused on the abstract that we have neglected the tangible/natural word and now we are being shown the consequence of doing so.

[ladjf]

11. Exactly!

We are imagining ourselves to be more powerful and important than we actually are.

[ffr]

2. I always wondered where my money went after I purchased stuff at Walmart.

Bye-bye Pangolin. Not that we care not, but that there are too many of us who are willing to take the last one of you at all costs.



07/14/10 - DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x253630

[Judi Lynn]

8. Thank you. n/t