Don’t allow pangolin go into extinction, expert warns

…says the animal remains most effective pest controller A Zoologist, Prof. Olajumoke Morenikeji, has called for the protection of pangolin, saying that the animal must not be allowed to go into extinction. Morenikeji, who made the call at a Children’s Colloquium and Kiddy fest to commemorate the 2020 World Pangolin Day, in Abeokuta, said that […]

…says the animal remains most effective pest controller

A Zoologist, Prof. Olajumoke Morenikeji, has called for the protection of pangolin, saying that the animal must not be allowed to go into extinction.

Morenikeji, who made the call at a Children’s Colloquium and Kiddy fest to commemorate the 2020 World Pangolin Day, in Abeokuta, said that the animal provides the earth with natural pest control.

According to her, the animal remains the most effective pest controller, stressing that a single pangolin could consume millions of insects per year.

The expert, who said that pangolin could eat ants and termites that destroyed farm crops, added that under no circumstance must the animal be allowed to go into extinction.

Morenikeji, who is also the Chairperson of Nigeria Pangolin Working Group, noted that over one million pangolin scales had been shipped from the African continent since 2009.

The Director, African Pangolin Working Group, Alexis Kriel, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview that pangolin remained the most trafficked animal in the world.

Kriel, a South African, noted that 70 percent of the 97,000kg of pangolin scales intercepted while leaving Africa in 2019 originated from Nigeria.

(NAN)