Taiwan’s pangolins suffer surge in feral dog attacks

In most of their habitat, humans are the biggest threat to the heavily trafficked pangolin. But in Taiwan, scaly mammals face another danger. The number of stray dogs is rapidly increasing.

Tseng Shao-tung, a 28-year-old veterinarian, has seen first-hand what dogs can do to gentle creatures while working at a hospital in Hsinchu.

Last month, he worked to save the life of a young male pangolin that had been laying in the wild for days by chewing off half its tail.

“It has a large open wound on its tail and rotting body tissue.”

This was the fifth pangolin that Tseng and his fellow veterinarians have saved from a suspected dog attack this year.

Chief veterinarian Chen Yi-ru said he has noticed a steady increase in the number of injured pangolins over the past five years. Most of them had their tails cut off.

Pangolins are covered with tightly overlapping body scales that curl into a ball when attacked. The tail is the animal’s most vulnerable part.

“So when attacked, the tail is usually the first bite,” Chen explained.

Wildlife researchers and officials said in a report released last year that dog attacks, which account for more than half of all injuries since 2018, have become the “main threat to pangolins in Taiwan.” rice field.

most trafficked mammals

Pangolins have been described by conservationists as the most trafficked mammals in the world, largely due to traditional Chinese medicine.

Scales are made of keratin (the substance that makes up nails and hair), but the unverified belief that they help breastfeeding mothers breastfeed has created a huge demand for scales among Chinese consumers. I have.

That demand, despite global bans, has decimated pangolin populations across Asia and Africa and funded lucrative international black market trade.

All eight pangolin species on both continents are listed as endangered or endangered.

Taiwan has become a relative conservation success story as pangolins have gone from being on the verge of extinction to being protected and thriving.

Zhang Fang-tse, a veterinarian and researcher at the official Taiwan Institute of Endemic Species, said large-scale hunting was seen from the 1950s to the 1970s.

“In Taiwan, 60,000 pangolins were killed for their scales and skins during that period,” he told AFP.

The Wildlife Conservation Act of 1989 put an end to the industry, but with a growing awareness of conservation, people began to treat their scaly neighbors as cherished rather than commodities.

Populations of the Chinese pangolin subspecies, the Formosan pangolin or Formosan pangolin, have since recovered and researchers now estimate between 10,000 and 15,000 in the wild.

But the increase in the island’s feral dog population is itself a result of the 2017 riots. government policy Not culling feral animals is attacking the pangolins, Chan warned.

“Pangolins are most affected because their roaming areas overlap greatly and pangolins don’t move as fast as other animals,” Chang said.

picky eater

Pangolins are also vulnerable because they have few offspring.

Formosan pangolins mate once a year and produce only one offspring after 150 days of gestation. Captive breeding programs have had little success.

“It may be more difficult to breed pangolins than pandas,” Chan said.

The increase in injured pangolins creates another challenge for veterinarians. Finding enough ants and termites to feed picky eaters who often reject alternative mixtures of larvae.

Loading into a truck with three other veterans, Tseng headed to the tree to retrieve a recently found ant colony.

“There are more pangolins to feed, so we have to keep an eye on them and go to look for ant nests every few days,” Tseng said.

A pangolin can eat a football-sized ant nest every day.

The government is also asking residents to report nest locations until the pangolins are released back into the wild.

but injured pangolin Under the care of Mr. Tseng, it is likely that he will be sent to a zoo or government facility for adoption after he recovers.

“It becomes difficult to climb trees, and it becomes impossible to roll into a ball,” says Tseng.

“I lost my ability to defend myself in the wild.”

© 2022 AFP