The exact origin of coronavirus, which is currently sweeping the world, is not clear. Scientists have said they believe it might come from the consumption of pangolins, some people say bats, and others say snakes. But one thing is clear — it’s a zoonotic disease that emerged from consuming animals. And before cultural differences or […]
Tag: pangolin
‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?
Mayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150 or so people who live in the village, which sits on the south bank of the Ivindo River, deep in the great Minkebe Forest in northern Gabon, are used to occasional bouts of diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and sleeping sickness. Mostly they shrug […]
China beefs up wildlife trade ban as COVID-19 outbreak intensifies
China has banned the trade and consumption of wild animals in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed more than 2,700 lives and infected more than 81,000 people, most of them in China, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. A temporary ban on trade in wildlife announced in January was expected to […]
Conservationists set the record straight on COVID-19’s wildlife links
The World Health Organization has categorized the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a pandemicin light of its spread around the world. Ever since the first cases emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan last December, there’s been much speculation — and misinformation— about the origins of the virus. And while scientists suspect it may have […]
Illegal pangolin trade may have played a part in coronavirus outbreak
The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak, the disease now called COVID-19, crossed the 2,362 mark this week as confirmed cases surpassed 78,000, but it remains unclear how the virus arrived into human populations. Bats are widely believed to be the source of the new virus. Some findings suggest it did not jump from […]
Conservationists welcome China’s wildlife trade ban
Conservationists are welcoming news that the Chinese Government has temporarily banned the sale of wildlife in markets, restaurants and over e-commerce as part of an effort to contain the Coronavirus outbreak, which has already claimed 56 lives. Defined as a zoonotic disease since it’s normally relegated to wildlife, it may have originated from a snake […]
Scales from around 50,000 pangolins seized by Chinese customs
Chinese customs officials have seized over 23 metric tons (23,000 kilograms or 50,000 pounds) of pangolin scales after a year-long investigation, local Chinese media reported last week. The massive amount of scales, the officials say, would have been extracted from around 50,000 pangolins, and represent the largest seizure of wildlife products in the country this […]
Three pangolin species closer to extinction: IUCN
The pangolin’s future looks gloomy, according to the latest update by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which assesses the conservation status of species. Of the eight known species of the pangolin, one of the world’s most trafficked mammals, two African species, the while-bellied (Phataginus tricuspis) and the giant ground pangolin (Smutsia gigantea), […]