Pangolins. Scales of Injustice

Pangolins. Scales of Injustice is dedicated to all those fighting for a future for the Pangolin, the world's most trafficked mammal.
Peirce, Richard
22133
978-1-77-584712-0
In stock
new
€12.50 *

Title: Pangolins
Subtitle: Scales of Injustice
Author: Richard Peirce
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
Cape Town, South Africa 2021
ISBN 9781775847120 / ISBN 978-1-77-584712-0
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 160 pages, numerous colour photos

About: Pangolins. Scales of Injustice

The burgeoning international trade in pangolins means that all eight of the world's pangolin species, four African and four Asian species, are under threat of extinction. When, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the globe, it shone a new light on the trade in pangolins, fingering these mammals as possible vectors for the transmission of the virus from its bat hosts to humans. Southeast Asia's wet markets, where assorted wild animals are stacked in cages one on top of the other with their bodily fluids mingling unchecked, were identified as the likely source. In Pangolins, Scales of Injustice, Richard Peirce introduces readers to this enigmatic and discreetly charming mammal, and follows the likely journey of a pangolin poached in Zimbabwe and brought to Johannesburg to be sold to a waiting trafficker. Readers accompany an agent of the African Pangolin Working Group on a real-life sting operation to capture the law breakers and rescue the animal, and follow its subsequent rehabilitation and release into the wild. Peirce unpacks the methods and terrifying statistics of the trade, describes visiting wildlife markets and restaurants in Southeast Asia, explains the links between wildlife and Covid-19, and details China's response to the unfolding drama of the pandemic.

Content: Pangolins. Scales of Injustice

Author's note
Foreword - Prof. Ray Jansen
Foreword - Izak Kruiper
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Preface
Pangolin facts
ZAMBEZI
An unlikely hero
Matabeleland
For the love of animals
Temminck's pangolin
Capture, tip-off, sting
Rehabilitation, rest and recovery
Freedom in a new home
TSWALU
A new beginning
Pangolin tales
CHINA & SOUTHEAST ASIA
Ineffective and ignored
China's virus?
SCALES OF INJUSTICE
Biology, history and symbolism
'Most trafficked mammal in the world'
The future
Epilogue
Stop press
Useful websites