The endangered Indian pangolin, already devastated by the illegal wildlife trade, is facing another crisis in Pakistan, one of the four countries where it’s found: rapid habitat loss.
Key habitats of the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) have particularly disappeared in Pakistan’s rural, mountainous northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to new research, reports contributor Emma Smith for Mongabay.
The province is Pakistan’s third most densely populated region, where development projects such as roads, mining, and industrial sites have fractured vital habitats.
In 2021, ecologist Tariq Ahmad, with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife Department, and his colleagues revisited 102 sites in the province where pangolin signs had been detected in a survey conducted in 2000. They found signs of pangolins in only 67 of those sites. According to Ahmad, the study’s lead author, pangolin populations in the province have plummeted by 25-40% over the last 25 years.
“It was heartbreaking to return to sites where pangolins once thrived and find them replaced by roads and buildings. We are pushing this species to the edge,” Ahmad said.
