Parveen Kaswan, Indian Forest Service officer, frequently posts pictures of animals in their natural settings. In a recent tweet, he shared a picture of the second-most trafficked mammal on the planet and asked his followers to identify the mammal.
Captioning the picture, he wrote, “Second most trafficked mammal on the planet. Do you know what it is?”
Second most trafficked mammal on planet. Do you know what it is ? pic.twitter.com/5XwOm0qgKC
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) January 15, 2023
While a majority of internet users guessed the name right, some were unable to identify the mammal and asked for the bureaucrat’s help. Kaswan wrote in the comment section that the mammal is a pangolin. He said that while being smuggled, his team managed to save the one in the picture.
He wrote, “It is a pangolin. Most trafficked mammal is human. This one was rescued by our team during getting smuggled. The pic was taken during release in wild. India has Indian and Chinese pangolin presence. They are trafficked for their scales mainly. For Chinese traditional medicine.”
They are the only mammals wholly-covered in scales and they use those scales to protect themselves from predators in the wild. If under threat, a pangolin will immediately curl into a tight ball and will use their sharp-scaled tails to defend themselves.
Getty
Click Here: Spain football tracksuit
Pangolins are hunted for meat, for use in traditional medicine and as fashion accessories, particularly in China and Vietnam. The large-scale illegal trade in Asian pangolins is drastically driving down their numbers, and pangolin trafficking is now huge (and illegal) business.
Research has found that pangolin prices are on the rise, fetching upwards of US $600 per kilogram today in comparison to US $14 per kilogram during the 1990s.
For more on news and current affairs from around the world please visit Indiatimes News.