Poachers of wildlife in India have been going smaller, while targeting more unique animals, endangering some of the nation's less-known animals.
According to the Associated Press, the star tortoise and the Indian pangolin are among those unique creatures now the target of poaching. The star tortoise is a popular pet that only grows to be about a foot long and the pangolin's ball-curling defense mechanism is not effective against humans.
For the most part, these animals are not getting the same kind of attention given to tigers, rhinoceroses and elephants, but they are much smaller and easier to kill or smuggle. Experts have said that the wealthy population in Southeast Asian countries likes to take exotic animals as pets and some alternative medicine practices use their meat for various treatments.
Pangolins' scales are made of keratin, like fingernails and hair, and are used in Chinese medicines, though they are not believed to have medicinal uses. The animal's meat is considered a delicacy. From 1990 to 2008, experts said only three pangolins were killed per year, on average, a figure that leapt to 320 since 2009.
"The problem is that we were turning a blind eye to all lesser-known species and suddenly this very lucrative trade has been allowed to explode," Belinda Wright, director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, told the AP. "The trade in lesser known species cannot be ignored, else entire species, such as the Indian pangolin, are in danger of being wiped out."
In truth, thousands of pangolins could be poached every year because conservationists estimate their figures only on seizures, which represent about 10 percent of all illegal trade. From 1990 to 2008, about 800 star tortoises were being poached every year on average, but that too has skyrocketed and more than tripled to 3,000 per year.
"This is a huge tragedy in the making," Wright said. "We must act before it is too late, or many of these spectacular animals will disappear."
