Indonesia seizes 85 endangered pangolins

August 01, 2012
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JAKARTA, Indonesia – Police have intercepted 85 endangered pangolins, most of them alive despite being stuffed into sacks by suspected smugglers, officials said Tuesday (July 31st).

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    The animals, also known as scaly anteaters and prized mostly in China and Vietnam as food and medicine, were packed in 14 sacks when they were seized at a bus station in Medan, North Sumatra on Saturday, said Yoris Marzuki, chief detective of the local police.

    "About 80% were still alive. We suspect that they were being smuggled abroad via Malaysia to Hong Kong or mainland China," he told AFP.

    He said police had acted on a tip-off but that no arrests had been made. "We are still investigating the case," he said, adding that police were working with the natural resources conservation agency to release the animals back to the wild.

    The pangolin is protected under the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and trading in it and its products is illegal. Conservation groups say smuggling of the animal is rampant and they are frequently poached from the wild, mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia, exacerbating the threat of extinction from rapid deforestation.

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