Scaling Up on Pangolin Conservation

11/10/2016

	In the northwest Cape region of South Africa a private guide at Tswalu Private Game Reserve, Nicky Souness, captured an incredible image of a pangolin, which made September's "Top 10 Shots" in the Sunday Times Wilderness Photograph of the Year competition. The image is also a category finalist for Endangered Africa.
(Photo by Nicky Souness)

As Nicky reports: "This rarely seen ground pangolin uses its strong sense of smell and extraordinarily long, sticky tongue to catch ants and termites. Pangolins are increasingly victims of the illegal wildlife trade, killed for their meat and scales." 

As such, delegates to the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting held in Johannesburg late September voted to list all 8 species of pangolins on the IUCN list of endangered species – the highest level of protection afforded by the treaty and a recognition that the species is threatened with extinction.

A Wildlife Conservation Society spokesperson, Susan Lieberman, said that this decision will help give pangolins a fighting chance. "The world is standing up for the little guy with this pivotal decision for greater protection of the pangolin. These species need extra protection, and under CITES .... they will get it."