The world's most trafficked mammal is the pangolin. US officials say it's an endangered species
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is looking to add protections for four species of pangolin native to Asia – including the Chinese, Indian, Sunda, and Philippine pangolin – and three species native to Africa, including the white-bellied, black-bellied, and giant pangolin. Seven species are in danger of extinction, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. An eighth species from Africa, the Temminck's ground pangolin, is already protected by the law. Scientists also say two more species of the mammal may exist.
The protections were signed into law in 1973 with bipartisan support and are key for preserving global biodiversity and keeping iconic types of plants and animals, such as the bald eagle, from dying out. The Endangered Species Act protects over 2,000 US and foreign species. Conservation and environmental groups say habitat loss from climate change is just one reason the act is especially critical today.
The endangerment listing, once finalized, would help strengthen trade and import restrictions of pangolin parts in the US, except in the case of scientific or other conservation purposes, according to the Center. It is illegal to trade them; the pangolin received certain commercial trade protections under the 2017 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. But tons of poached scales representing thousands of pangolin have been found by authorities around the world in recent years.
'I'm delighted the United States is doing its part to save these adorably odd creatures,' Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. 'Pangolins are on the razor's edge of extinction, and we need to completely shut down any US market for their scales. There's no good reason for anybody to ingest any part of a pangolin.'
The pangolin eats insects and rolls into a ball when threatened by predators. The Fish and Wildlife Service said pangolin populations have declined due to targeting by poachers and criminal activity, noting proceeds from the illicit sale of pangolins and other imperiled species often fund serious crimes, including drug and arms trafficking.
While the act requires endangered species listing regardless of their origin, the designation could also assist in prosecuting smugglers violating the protections. Advocates, including from the International Fund for Animal Welfare and other national and international groups, have for years petitioned to list the pangolin. In 2020, these organizations and the Fish and Wildlife Service signed an agreement to enforce listing deadlines.
Polar bears, as well as penguins – similarly not found in the US – have also been in discussions for listing over the years. Monday's move comes despite President Donald Trump's efforts to weaken the act, aligning with ongoing conservative criticism that it stifles economic growth.
Trump's executive order declaring an energy emergency in the US says the act can't stand in the way of energy development, signaling that protections could be rolled back. The Trump administration already plans to cut habitat protections for endangered and threatened species in an effort to redefine the long-standing meaning of what constitutes harm.
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Al Arabiya
5 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Restored Nagasaki bell rings in 80 years since atomic bombing
Twin cathedral bells rang in unison Saturday in Japan's Nagasaki for the first time since the atomic bombing of the city 80 years ago, commemorating the moment of horror. On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 a.m., three days after a nuclear attack on Hiroshima, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. After heavy downpours Saturday morning, the rain stopped shortly before a moment of silence and ceremony in which Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki urged the world to 'stop armed conflicts immediately.' 'Eighty years have passed, and who could have imagined that the world would become like this? 'A crisis that could threaten the survival of humanity, such as a nuclear war, is looming over each and every one of us living on this planet.' About 74,000 people were killed in the southwestern port city, on top of the 140,000 killed in Hiroshima. Days later, on August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered, marking the end of World War II. Historians have debated whether the bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion. 'Invisible terror' But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that often came with being a hibakusha. Ninety-three-year-old survivor Hiroshi Nishioka, who was just three kilometers (1.8 miles) from the spot where the bomb exploded, told ceremony attendees of the horror he witnessed as a young teenager. 'Even the lucky ones (who were not severely injured) gradually began to bleed from their gums and lose their hair, and one after another they died,' he recalled. 'Even though the war was over, the atomic bomb brought invisible terror.' Nagasaki resident Atsuko Higuchi told AFP it 'made her happy' that everyone would remember the city's victims. 'Instead of thinking that these events belong to the past, we must remember that these are real events that took place,' the 50-year-old said. On Saturday, 200-300 people attending mass at Nagasaki's Immaculate Conception Cathedral heard the two bells ring together for the first time since 1945. One of them, 61-year-old Akio Watanabe, said he had been waiting since he was a young man to hear the bells chime together. The restoration is a 'symbol of reconciliation', he said, tears streaming down his face. The imposing red-brick cathedral, with its twin bell towers atop a hill, was rebuilt in 1959 after it was almost completely destroyed in the monstrous explosion just a few hundred meters away. Only one of its two bells was recovered from the rubble, leaving the northern tower silent. With funds from US churchgoers, a new bell was constructed and restored to the tower, and chimed Saturday at the exact moment the bomb was dropped. 'Working together for peace' The cathedral's chief priest, Kenichi Yamamura, told AFP 'it's not about forgetting the wounds of the past but recognizing them and taking action to repair and rebuild, and in doing so, working together for peace.' He also sees the chimes as a message to the world, shaken by multiple conflicts and caught in a frantic new arms race. Nearly 100 countries were set to participate in this year's commemorations, including Russia, which has not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Israel, whose ambassador was not invited last year over the war in Gaza, was in attendance. An American university professor, whose grandfather participated in the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons, spearheaded the bell project. During his research in Nagasaki, a Japanese Christian told him he would like to hear the two bells of the cathedral ring together in his lifetime. Inspired by the idea, James Nolan, a sociology professor at Williams College in Massachusetts, embarked on a year-long series of lectures about the atomic bomb across the United States, primarily in churches. 'In tears' He managed to raise $125,000 from American Catholics to fund the new bell. When it was unveiled in Nagasaki in the spring, 'the reactions were magnificent. There were people literally in tears,' said Nolan. Many American Catholics he met were also unaware of the painful history of Nagasaki's Christians, who, converted in the 16th century by the first European missionaries and then persecuted by Japanese shoguns, kept their faith alive clandestinely for over 250 years. This story was told in the novel 'Silence' by Shusaku Endo, and adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2016. He explains that American Catholics also showed 'compassion and sadness' upon hearing about the perseverance of Nagasaki's Christians after the atomic bomb, which killed 8,500 of the parish's 12,000 faithful. They were inspired by the 'willingness to forgive and rebuild.'
Arab News
6 days ago
- Arab News
Restored Nagasaki bell rings in 80 years since US atomic bombing
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Al Arabiya
6 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Helicopter crash kills two people, shuts Mississippi River, Coast Guard says
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