Wildlife Forensics: Life saver for Pangolins

Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked animal. A research by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata is going to help the cause of Pangolins.

A research by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata is going to help the cause of Pangolins.

Pangolins are the world’s most trafficked animal. It’s scales are used to make traditional East Asian medicines. Now researchers of ZSI have developed tools to tell apart the scales of Indian Pangolin and Chinese Pangolin. This is going to help enforce national and international laws and to track decline of the species.

Dr. Mukesh Thakur, lead author and coordinator of Wildlife Forensic Facilities at ZSI, explains that when scales are confiscated, the wildlife officers just weigh and estimate how many pangolins might have been killed.

“This needs revision as the dry weight of the scales from one single mature Chinese pangolin is roughly about 500-700 grams. However, in the case of Indian pangolin it goes up to 1.5 kg to 1.8 kg,” explains Dr. Thakur.

Source: The Hindu

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