I did not know that the Philippines had anteaters and sea dragons until it was reported last week that a shipment of contraband items from Bacolod arrived at the North Harbor in Manila. The seized items consisted of 58 dead anteaters called pangolins, 14 boxes of dried sea horses and one carton of sea dragons. The Director of the Biodiversity Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Dr. Mundita Lim, was visibly distressed when she was interviewed on television. She said the pangolins are an endangered species and their existence is important to ecology because they feed on termites.
The members of the Coast Guard who seized the poached animals said that most likely, these were intended to be exported to China and other Asian countries which eat the meat of the pangolin as a delicacy and sell the seahorses and sea dragons as aphrodisiacs and medicinal items. The scales of the pangolins are also traded as they are believed to cure cancer, cerebral palsy and other illnesses.
The news disturbed me so much I had to research on the seized creatures. The pangolin is a scaly anteater—the size of a small cat—that looks like an armadillo. Some describe it as bizarre but I see it more like the Iron Man of the mammal world, only that it is vulnerable to human attack. The Philippines is one of only three Asian countries that have it. Conservationists say that the pangolins are the most illegally traded animals in the world. Up to 100,000 pangolins are estimated to be hunted and sold every year. Prince William once said that pangolins “run the risk of becoming extinct before most people have even heard of them.” The illegal trade takes place despite national and international legislation protecting them.
Seahorses, on the other hand, are considered the jewels of the ocean. They are fascinating creatures with heads resembling a horse’s. They are endangered because they do not multiply fast; they are vulnerable to global warming; and they are poached as pets for aquariums. They are also sold as souvenirs and medicine for certain illnesses. The sea dragons belong to the same species as sea horses although they sometimes look more like sea plants as they can change their appearance to adapt to their environment.
Now, why must we care that these seized creatures are endangered? Because the extinction of any species of animal, plant, and even microorganism, for that matter, will destroy our biodiversity and our ecosystem. Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth. Each species, no matter how small, has an important role to play. For example, a large number of plant species means a greater variety of crops. Crop byproducts feed cattle; cattle waste feeds the soil; crops yield straw; straw provides organic matter and fodder; crops feed humans and animals, and so on. Even bacteria, amoeba and algae all have a role to play. While there may be a survival of the fittest, each species depends on others to ensure its survival. A healthy biodiversity provides ecosystem services such as protection of water resources, soils formation and protection, pollution breakdown and absorption, and even recovery from unpredictable disasters. Biodiversity also ensures food supply, medicinal resources and wood products, among many others. Yet, men indiscriminately kill and poach species that they can trade regardless of the future and the consequence to ecology.
According to Nature Magazine, to prevent the problem of genetic defects caused by in-breeding, species need a variety of genes to ensure survival. But men keep destroying habitats for commercial development or extraction of minerals. When habitats are destroyed, the chances for interaction among species with a large gene pool decreases. Poaching is therefore not only the cause of loss of biodiversity. With urbanization, forests are being converted to commercial and residential uses, destroying animal and plant habitats. The least we can do then to save our diverse animal and plant species is to help stop illegal poaching that can lead to the extinction of some species. If the poachers do not care enough about their children and the next generation of their kin, those of us who love our families and the future generations of our bloodline to live in a healthful environment should make sure that poachers and killers of animal and plant species should be stopped. Citizens may arrest if they catch person committing unlawful acts.
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