6/17/2023 0 Comments Pangolin armadillo“Ironically, at this point, poachers have much more knowledge about pangolins in the wild than do conservationists.” “We’re aware of the threat to these unique animals, but their behavior has been little studied by the scientific community before now, and we hope our research is a starting point from which future conservation initiatives can build,” said DiPaola, who has been studying pangolins as part of the Animal Behavior and Conservation Master’s Program at Hunter College. One Chinese customs seizure in late 2019 stopped the trafficking of tons of pangolin scales, believed to have been harvested from at least 50,000 pangolins-and that seizure is far from unique. (Pangolins are the only known mammal with such scales.) While science has yet to discover any such medicinal value, the scales are still sought after by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, in particular. While some people pursue the pangolin’s meat as a delicacy, the animal is more broadly sought for the perceived medicinal value of the keratin scales that cover its body. To date, little research has been done on pangolins-a mammal that resembles an anteater or an armadillo, but is related to neither-despite the fact that all eight pangolin species are threatened, some critically endangered, and yet they are among the most highly trafficked mammals on the planet. The study is especially timely, given the pangolin‘s hypothesized role in the coronavirus crisis as a possible vector for SARS-CoV-2 between bats and humans. A new study led by Hunter College psychology professor Joshua Plotnik, PhD, and master’s degree student Joshua DiPaola assesses the ability of the Sunda pangolin-one of eight species of pangolins-to forage for food using sight, sound, and smell.
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