Traces of a potential fifth species of Asian pangolin found.

To combat wildlife-related crimes on an international scale, DNA forensics techniques have been used to identify which species have been the victim of illegal trafficking activities. Using DNA extracts from two batches of pangolin scales seized by the Hong Kong Customs, a group of scientists from the Kadoorie Farm conducted a phylogenetic analysis in 2015 to identify the species and geographic origins of the seized pangolin scales.

Some five years later in October 2020, a group of scientists from Germany and China took up the study and concluded that there might in fact be a fifth Asian pangolin species.

Courtesy of Louis Cheung

Kim McCoy13 January 2021Pangolin, Pangolin Scales, DNA, Kadoorie FarmComment

Pangolin smugglers jailed for trafficking 23 tonnes of scales.

On 5 January 2021, a Court in east Zhejiang Province sentenced 17 people to imprisonment for smuggling more than 23 tonnes of pangolin scales into the country.

The scales, worth about US$27.9 million (HK$216 million), were smuggled by the gang from Nigeria in three batches in 2018 and 2019, and would account for the death of around 50,000 pangolins.

Kim McCoy7 January 2021Pangolin, Pangolin Scales, Wildlife Crime, Wildlife Trafficking, Traditional Chinese MedicineComment

One tonne of pangolin scales seized in biggest haul of year.

The Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department have made the year’s biggest seizure of pangolin scales, finding 1000 kg of the contraband (estimated to have come from 50,000 pangolins) along with 13kg of dried snake gall bladders in a shipping container from Indonesia.

Kim McCoy24 September 2020Pangolin, Pangolin Scales, Illegal Wildlife, Wildlife Crime, Organised CrimeComment