The recent worldwide ban on all eight species of pangolins by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites) has brought cheer to the conservation community.
Pangolins face grave threats to their survival, not only from the illegal wildlife trade but also from habitat loss and a low reproductive rate. Female pangolins produce only one offspring a year.
Pangolins play an important role in the ecosystem, as their diet consists of ants and termites, and they thus provide biological pest control. It is estimated that a single pangolin consumes more than 70 million ants and termites a year, and from this fact, one can imagine the role of pangolins as nature’s pest controllers and soil caretakers.
