For the Chinese subspecies of the world’s most trafficked wild animal, the darkest days may be in the rearview mirror.

The Chinese tree pangolin, a Critically-Endangered species according to the IUCN, is steadily growing in population size 6 years after China placed the animal under first-class national protection measures.

In Guangdong Province, the wild population is estimated at 1,778, which if divided across its distribution areas, amounts to 0.33 pangolins per square kilometer. This is a marked improvement from earlier this century when the population plummeted to zero in areas of counties Meizhou, Huizhou, and Heyuan.

The pangolin is one of the last surviving groups of scaley mammals, and the 9 recognized species are located across tropical regions of Asia and Africa.

Comprehensive monitoring in Guangdong has been established by the Chinese Forests and Grasslands Administration, with 690 infrared cameras activated in 2020 across its remaining known locations.

Since then, reports China Daily, certain areas of habitat have improved, and the Administration also established the first research and breeding center for Chinese tree pangolins in the country in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

There are now 35 distribution areas for the Chinese pangolin in the country, which are included in a national list of “key terrestrial habitats.”

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Chinese traditional medicine has used the animal’s scales for millennia as a supposed treatment.

The country’s population of animals stood at around 64,000 individuals in 2000, but this fell more than 80% since then, mostly from poaching for this medicinal use. Like rhino horn and elephant ivory, Chinese traditional medicine has a lot to answer for over the declines in the pangolin.

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The Chinese authorities seem to be both well aware of this, and frank about the animal’s precarious existence. Pangolin species across the world are poached for export into China and Vietnam, but the first step to protecting the group across the world is to protect the member you have at home, and though China has a spotty track record of preventing its native wildlife from becoming extinct, conservation authorities have at least gotten to this animal earlier than other species.

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