Word: pangolins
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...China's forests once teemed with pangolin. But the reproductive capacity of the slow-moving mammal is no match for Chinese appetites, and pangolins have been all but eradicated on the mainland. Now gourmets, traditional medicine practitioners and businessmen looking to show off their wealth rely on the likes of Jema'ah. But even in distant Sumatran forests, the pangolin is growing harder to find. "I used to catch big ones" of up to 20 kilograms, Jema'ah says. "But the biggest I catch these days are eight kilos...
...Pangolin are not the only species being driven toward extinction across Asia by China's demand for exotic, edible wildlife. "As purchasing power in China grows, demand has just exploded," says James Compton, who runs the Southeast Asia office of TRAFFIC, the most prominent group fighting the illegal wildlife trade worldwide. Tim Redford, a Bangkok-based researcher for the conservation group WildAid, estimates that between 1% and 10% of smuggled animals are seized by government officials in efforts to combat an illegal industry worth billions of dollars annually. Between 1999 and 2003, Chinese authorities alone seized 18,850 live endangered...
...smoking, their mobiles rang regularly as restaurants or familiar customers placed orders. "Now deals are usually carried out at dawn or dusk to avoid government inspectors," says Lao Xu, who sells hunting tridents and fermenting jars at the market. "If you want any wild animal, from Brazil turtles to pangolin, I can arrange for it to be delivered to your designated restaurant within several hours...
...avian flu in Indonesia that has sickened 20 and killed two, the U.S. State Department announced the formation of an international coalition to lobby Asian governments to tighten the screws on wildlife smugglers. Asia can only hope that it doesn't take a deadly pandemic to save the pangolin...
...Scales of the armadillo-like PANGOLIN, found in Southeast Asia, purportedly reduce swelling. Pangolin meat is also considered a nutritious treat...