During a recent trip to rural Kenya, I made a stop by a large tourist-centered indoor market while on the way to Tsavo National Park. Despite being in the early hours of the day, the place was already packed with visitors stopping for a coffee or a WC break before entering the park and most were scurrying around the souvenir-covered tables, looking for a nice gift to bring home. Kenyan arts and crafts have always been a favorite of mine since childhood and I did spend a few minutes like so many others looking at the thousands of wooden or carved in stone animals of all sizes. Rhinos, elephants, lions and other « Big Five » roamed as kings in the vendors’ collections but one specific sculpture stopped me in my track. A small, scaly figure I had never seen in any of these animal displays. Sensing my interest, the vendor told me a few words : « It’s a pangolin. They’re pretty rare. ». I asked him if he had others but he brushed me off : « No. It’s the only one I made. People don’t know about this animal. They never see it. » And for a good reason : pangolins are nowadays considered the most poached animals in the world…
Covered in thick keratin scales that have them resemble reptiles, pangolins are unique mammals found across Asia and Africa. Eight species have been described, sharing this unique armor-like plates which gave them their name (in Malay, pengguling means « rolling up ») and helps them protect their soft bellies against various predators. Sadly for them, these harmless anteaters have seen their scales and meat used in many traditional medicine recipes across Asia, especially in China and Vietnam. Due to high demand from these countries, wild populations of these animals have crumbled down over the last few decades. The three asian species are now considered critically endangered, pushing the asian buyers and traffickers to focus on the five african ones which are more common and considered « only » endangered or vulnerable.
Between 2014 and 2021, it was estimated that close to 8.5 million pangolins were hunted and sold illegally in Africa. In Lagos (Nigeria), a key area of the African-Asian wildlife contraband, some shipments of 4 tons of pangolin scales were stopped and destroyed in 2023 alone. An unsustainable plundering for these solitary, slow breeding animals.
Raising awareness around pangolins and their senseless poaching is the best way to prevent further destruction of these species, some of which are already on the brink of extinction. If some african cultures depict the pangolin as a valuable bushmeat prey, myths and traditions revolving around these animals are often very positive. In parts of Eastern Africa, crossing paths with a pangolin in your farmlands means that crops will be especially good this year and therefore pangolins are held in high regard by locals. More importantly, pangolins are unique engineers of their ecosystems. Being good diggers, they help keep soils in good health by burrowing for insects with their huge claws. Their unique taste for ants and termites make them essential to keep these bug populations in check and help their environment thrive. Their rarity has turned pangolins into bioindicators, their presence in ecosystems helping to monitor their degradation or recovery.
Pangolins in Africa currently face a fate similar to their asian cousins but extinction doesn’t have to be the conclusion. By raising awareness around these poorly known animals, both locally and internationally, much can be done. While most african countries have already started to act in order to protect pangolins and punish wildlife traffickers more harshly, another way to preserve these delicate scaly mammals is potentially to have them become more famous. The status of the « Big Five » is what helped these animals and the ones sharing their habitats get more recognition internationally while being endangered species as well. With its unique looks and gentle nature, pangolins surely deserve to turn into wildlife icons as well. And then, maybe we’ll see their populations numbers soar again alongside souvenir wooden sculptures depicting them.
