Some people say that they don’t know where the specific source of pangolins seized by the customs is and use this as an excuse to say that they cannot be released to their places of origins. At the exchange symposium on the rescue of pangolins held on August 2, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) also discussed this topic with participants from different sectors.

CBCGDF said that it is not difficult to determine the population and source of the pangolins by testing their DNA. The identification of pangolins’ populations and the determination of their releasing location are two different concepts. It is just like, some people are from Hubei Province in China, but it’s not necessary for them must live in Hubei. After the successful rescue in Vietnam, the pangolin rescue center there directly released the pangolins in the wild, and they were not released to the source of the population determined by the DNA testing.

Many of the scientists present here, such as those who study pangolin's food, may not know much about the current state of the rescue of pangolins. Take Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as an example, every year thousands of pangolins were seized and rescued by customs, but in the end the vast majority are still dead, so the success rate of the rescue is not as good as imagined. The study of individual pangolin can be done, so why not expand the scale of research and field rescue, including in the wild in the natural area.

CBCGDF is very grateful to the staff of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and the Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province. And some of them have spent more than 70 days in Guangdong province rescuing Malayan pangolins, and there are very clear videos that can clearly prove that pangolins in the wild and artificial environments are living in completely different conditions. In the same pangolin individual, the health of the pangolin in the field is far better than the pangolin that is ambulanced in the traditional indoor. In May this year, three Malayan pangolins rescued in Yunnan province, two of them survived two days and ten days in artificial environment, and one was rescued in an artificial environment, and after six days, it did not appear to improve, to the sixth day, released to the wild and after rescue, its eating and climbing trees are surprisingly good, suggesting that pangolins can recover quickly in the wild. There are such stark contrasts and examples, if we don't start to step in this direction, it won't work!

Original Chinese article:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/de9YZv9ULAveTs8mZB2plQ

By / Maggie