Carrying nothing but backpack loaded with extra shirts, a towel, water, food, a notebook, pen and the all-important global-positioning satellite device and a satellite phone, plus camera traps, they trek unfamiliar terrains, climb trees, crawl under thick shrubs and tall grasses, cross rivers and streams, night or day, looking for signs-scratch mark, tracks or footprints, even feces left behind by the little-known
scaly anteater or pangolin (Manis culionensis de Elera) that can only be found in Palawan.
Earlier this yearfootage was captured by conservationists of the rare creature- sometimes referred to as a '
scaly anteater'.
The eighth annual pangolin day is celebrated to raise awareness about the shy, nocturnal
scaly anteater, which some wildlife organizations say is the world's most trafficked animal.
The tiny and shy pangolin, which resembles a
scaly anteater, is the world's most heavily trafficked mammal and despite bans the trade remains rampant.
The national park was setup to provide refuge to the grey goral, barking deer and the leopard, as well as the rhesus monkeys, jackals, wild boars, porcupine, mongoose and the pangolin or
scaly anteater. This park has been placed in the Management Category V (protected landscape of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which is an international organisation working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources.
The pangolin or
scaly anteater, freshwater turtles, saker and peregrine falcons and houbara bustard are some of the endangered animals that are illegally exported from Pakistan.
IWMB Education Officer Sikhawat Ali, who has brought the animal to the federal capital, told reporter Sunday that the
scaly anteater had created panic among the people of Taxila due to its horrific look.
It is also seen as playing a key role in the trafficking and consumption of illegal products including ivory,
scaly anteater or pangolin scales and tiger skins.
The pangolin, or
scaly anteater, is the only mammal with large overlapping scales covering its body.
2007), The
Scaly anteater has unique adaptations for digging burrows; it has powerful forelimbs with tough claws, adapted for digging (Swart et al., 1999).
This tally includes last month's incident in which a Chinese boat with 12 fishermen was found stuck at the Tubbataha Reef, the country's largest protected marine area, leading to the discovery aboard it of carcasses of an estimated 2,000 pangolins, an endangered species of
scaly anteater.
Other show-stopper head-pieces include hats in cat-teeth, tiny antelope horns or
scaly anteater and leopard-skin.
scaly anteater - toothless mammal of southern Africa and Asia having a body covered with horny scales and a long snout for feeding on ants and termites