Exilian
Off-topic and Chatter: The Jolly Boar Inn => General Chatter - The Boozer => Topic started by: Jubal on February 17, 2018, 11:15:56 PM
-
It's still just about World Pangolin Day in the UK, so here's a post for the creature in my avatar :)
(https://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2016/09/27/pangolins-cites/pangolin-cites-03.jpg)
Pangolins are mammals with keratin scales, found in Africa and Asia. There are 8 species, some ground-living and some arboreal: they are insectivores with long tongues for eating termites and suchlike. They're very hard to keep in captivity, which is partly why they're little known in Europe & America.
They're also the most illegally trafficked mammal group in existence - in the last few years, it's thought that over a million have been captured from the wild, mostly for the East Asian "traditional medicine" market. All of the 8 species are red-listed for their conservation status - two are "vulnerable", four "endangered", and two more "critically endangered."
You can find more on conservation issues at the IUCN pangolin specialist group's website:
http://www.pangolinsg.org/