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The cringe-evoking pangolins are not considered creatures to pet at home and do not come across as popular attractions at zoos in China and Southeast Asia either. Further, their potential link with the origin of Covid pandemic, has eroded their prominence within the traditional medicine landscape of Asian countries, even inside the wet markets of China and Thailand. 

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However, it has emerged that there are more pangolin species than previously believed.

The mammal masquerading as a reptile has nine species and not eight as was previously believed, according to a finding published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

What have the researchers found about pangolins?

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Researchers have found that the scales of Pangolins confiscated in Hong Kong in 2012 and 2013 and in Yunnan, China, in 2015 and 2019 belong to a previously unrecognised pangolin species.

Pangolins are dressed up with a coat of scales, and sharp claws and produce absurdly sticky saliva. 

The discovered pangolin species is yet to be formally described.

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"It’s probably being captured and being called a Sunda pangolin or something like that," Matthew Shirley, a conservation biologist at Florida International University and chair of the Species Survival Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature was quoted as saying by the New York Times. 

What does it mean?

Pangolins remain susceptible to poaching due to their purported significance in traditional medication practices in China, Mongolia and parts of Southeast Asia. 

Also watch | Thailand wildlife bust: Pangolin scale seizure worth $1.4 million

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According to Dr Shirley, piecing together the genetic diversity of pangolins is important for stopping their poaching.

To find out where illegally trafficked scales are coming from, and which pangolin species are most at risk from poaching, the authorities need a strong reference database that matches pangolin genetics with geographic locations, Dr Shirley said, according to the New York Times.

An estimated 200,000 Sunda pangolins have been illegally traded in the decade between 2007 and 2017, according to the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group.

In 2016, it was estimated that since 2000, more than one million pangolins were traded illegally worldwide, making them the most trafficked wild mammal in the world.

Wildlife significance of Pangolins

Pangolins are wildlife scavengers. An adult pangolin weighing 6.6 pounds (about 3 kg) can consume more than 0.66 (0.29 kg) pounds of termites in one meal. Their big appetite means that one pangolin can protect an area as large as 31 football fields (41 acres) from termite destruction. 

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