MANILA: The Philippine coast guard said yesterday they had found hundreds of frozen scaly anteaters, or pangolins, in the cargo hold of a Chinese boat that ran aground in a protected marine sanctuary last week.
Wildlife officials have been informed of the discovery, which could lead to more charges against the 12 Chinese men arrested for poaching after their boat was stranded in Tubbataha Reef.
“We found 400 boxes containing anteaters and we are determining where these came from,” coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo said.
He could not say whether the pangolins were frozen alive, or had already been butchered as meat.
A protected species, pangolins are widely hunted in parts of Asia for their meat, skin and scales. In China, they are known as a delicacy and are purported to have medicinal qualities.
According to the International Union of Conservation of Nature, all eight species of the insect-eating mammals are protected by international laws around the world. Two — the Malaysian and Chinese pangolins — are in its “red list” of endangered species. AFP
