In an African forest, a fight to save the endangered pangolin

by Camille Laffont

Heads up: Swiss scientist Maja Gudehus, rear, and a Pygmy tracker look for the elusive pangolin

The prehistoric shape is hard to make out as it moves slowly through the gloomy forest, so trackers listen for the rustle of scales against the leaves to pick up its trail.


Their target is the long-tailed pangolin—a little mammal also called the scaly anteater, which will be lucky to survive to the end of this century.

The harmless creature has no defence against predators apart from its small size and a camouflage of brown scales covering its body.

Today, the world's pangolin species are listed as either vulnerable or critically endangered.

The pangolin is considered the most-trafficked animal on the planet—the victim of mass poaching for bushmeat and sales of its scales, especially to China.

According to a study published in 2017 by the Conservation Letters journal, between 400,000 and 2.7 million of the animals are hunted each year in central African forests.

Their plight has leapt to worldwide prominence as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The microbe is believed to have leapt the species barrier in markets in China, where pangolins and other wild animals are killed for their meat.

After testing more than 1,000 samples from wild animals, scientists at the South China Agricultural University found the genome sequences of viruses found on pangolins to be 99 percent identical to those on coronavirus patients.

Anecdotal evidence from Gabon suggests that the bushmeat trade in pangolins has plummeted since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic—but wildlife experts say it is too early to say whether this decline will last, and what impact this will have on the creatures' survival.

Pangolins in Asia, like this Formosan pangolin, are also under threat from the illegal trade

'No data exists'

The Dzanga-Sangha National Park, in the far southwest of the CAR, is the last sanctuary for animal life in a poor country ravaged by civil war. Its dense forest offers one of the world's few refuges for a species facing extinction.

In this haven, pangolin trackers have no interest in the creature' meat or taking the scales that sell at phenomenal prices in Chinese traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic qualities—claims that are scientifically unproven and strongly contested.

Researcher Maja Gudehus is leading a team in Dzanga-Sangha to study pangolins in their natural habitat, the better to understand their ways and to protect them.


The project is unique in Africa. While their meat is prized, little is known about pangolins scientifically. Gudehus wants to unlock knowledge about their longevity, territory, food, life habits and reproductive cycle.

"Virtually no data exists about the long-tailed pangolin and not much more about the other African species," the Swiss scientist explained while watching her protege clamber in the branches overhead.

Pangolin defender: Swiss researcher Maja Gudehus

Helped by Pygmies

The animal is particularly easy to capture. When it senses danger, it curls up into a ball, which humans have but to pick up. But in captivity, it is one of the most difficult creatures to study.

"You can't keep them more than a few days. They don't eat, die from stress, gastritis, and other problems we don't know yet," Gudehus said.

The only solution is to monitor a few clearly identified specimens, with the help of Pygmies in the region. The knowledge of the Baka people, fine guides to the forest, is essential in tracking the fragile and fearful animals.

Of three creatures recently under observation, one has vanished and another was the victim of a hitherto unknown parasite.

"Normally one can tell when an animal is not well. But pangolins can die in half an hour without giving you time to notice," said Gudehus.

Gudehus uses whatever she can to provide necessary treatment. Her laboratory is also her home, a tiny shack besieged by vegetation, where scientific literature and boxes of medical supplies are packed in between her microscope and a camp bed

Bushmeat: A market stall in Libreville, the Gabonese capital, where pangolin and other wild animals are sold for food

Pangolin scales are bought for high prices in China, where they are supposed to have medicinal properties—a claim that has no scientific support

Rangers search a motorcycle taxi for pangolin scales or ammunition

'Difficult to follow'

"We used to see many pangolins," said Didon, one of the most respected Baka trackers in the region. "Today, they've become rare."

While all four African species of pangolin are present in the CAR and officially protected, the law is very hard to enforce. Two-thirds of the country are still in the hands of armed groups following a succession of conflicts.

"Unlike elephants, pangolins are very difficult to track, and it's rare to be able to arrest poachers in the act," said Luis Arranz, the national park representative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

"We have to rely on seizures on the road and on our informers."

In the park's offices, Arranz opened a metal door to give an idea of the scale of trafficking. Crates on shelves are overflowing with scales that had been destined for the Chinese market. The collection is valued at several hundred thousand euros (dollars).

"Here, many people do that," said a local hunter, asking not to be named. "A pot of pangolin scales sells for about 30,000 CFA francs (46 euros / $50). If there was work here, people wouldn't hunt.

Pangolin sales plunge in Gabon over coronavirus fears

Journal information: Conservation Letters

#BUSHMEAT

COVID or not, ‘the desire to eat wildlife’ continues in Asia

Countries in the region moved to ban the sale and consumption of wildlife after COVID-19 emerged, but coronavirus remains rampant and so does the trade.
A trader torches a bat at a live animal market in Langowan in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi in June [Courtesy of Four Paws]

By Ian Lloyd Neubauer
13 Jul 2021


Continuing attempts to curb the sale of wild animals and their meat have failed to engender change at wet markets in the Asia Pacific, even as the region struggles to contain the largest and deadliest wave of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases that spread to humans originate in animals.

The SARS virus, for example, which killed 800 people between 2002 and 2004, is thought to have started in bats before spreading to civets at a wildlife market in the Chinese city of Foshan.

In April, after its investigative team in China concluded a seafood market in Wuhan was the most likely route by which COVID-19 first jumped to humans, WHO took the unprecedented move of urging countries to pause the sale of captured wild mammals at wet markets as an emergency measure.

Animal welfare groups in Asia have been making the same demands for years, saying the unsanitary and cruel conditions in which wild and domestic animals are kept at wet markets are the perfect breeding ground for zoonotic diseases.

Several Asian countries have passed new laws to curb the sale of ‘bush meat’ and limit activity at wet markets during the pandemic.


But nearly all attempts to stamp out the trade have been hamstrung by the continuing popularity of bush meat among some people in Asia, the sector’s vast economic value and a lack of enforcement.

Stopping the trade “will be a challenging exercise,” said Li Shuo, global policy adviser for Greenpeace in China.

A live animal or ‘wet’ market in Beriman in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi. Despite efforts to crack down on the trade following the coronavirus pandemic, NGO investigators say wildlife continues to be sold and eaten in many parts of Asia

 [Courtesy of Four Paws]

On-again, off-again

Last July, a presidential decree was issued in Vietnam suspending all wildlife imports and introducing much stiffer penalties for violators, including up to 15 years in prison.

But a survey last month by PanNature, an NGO, found no positive changes in the trade of wildlife products had occurred at the local level in Vietnam. Wet markets in the Mekong Delta and other parts of the country were found to still be selling turtles, birds and endangered wildlife species.

In Indonesia, the site of Asia’s worst COVID-19 outbreak with more than 2.5 million cases and at least 67,000 deaths, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has been trying to convince local officials to close wildlife markets around the country since the start of the pandemic.

Officials in the city of Solo in Central Java were among those who took note, ordering the culling of hundreds of bats at Depok, one of the country’s largest bird, dog and wildlife markets. But the victory proved short lived.

“They brutally exterminated hundreds of bats when COVID-19 first hit and stopped selling them,” said Lola Webber, coalition coordinator at the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia Coalition. “But from what I’ve heard from my sources, it’s now business as usual.”

Marison Guciano, founder of Flight, an NGO protecting Indonesian birdlife, confirms Webber’s claim. “I was there one week ago and they are still openly selling bats as well as snakes, rabbits, turtles, ferrets, beavers, cats, dogs, hamsters, hedgehogs, parrots, owls, crows and eagles.”

Rats for sale in a market in Langowan in the Indonesian province of Sulawesi in June [Courtesy of Four Paws]The same scenario is playing out at wet markets across Indonesia.


To mark World Zoonoses Day last week, animal welfare group Four Paws released photos taken in June showing hundreds of bats, rats, dogs, snakes, birds and other animals for sale at three different markets in Northern Sulawesi Province 2,000km (1,243 miles) northeast of Solo.

History repeats itself

In April and May of last year, a few months after the pandemic began, global animal rights group PETA began visiting wet markets known to sell wildlife in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and China.

“We expected new rules and regulations to have been put in place but we saw it was business as usual, with all different species in filthy cages, some alive, some dead, sometimes in the same cages,” says PETA’s Asia spokesperson Nirali Shah. “These environments are extremely frightening and stressful for the animals, which weakens their immune system and makes them more vulnerable to diseases that can jump across species and then to humans.

“At some markets, we saw animals taken from cages, killed on countertops streaked with blood from other species and workers not wearing gloves, no hygiene at all. This combination of risky factors is like a ticking time bomb waiting for a new pandemic to begin,” she says.

In China, where a total ban on the trade and consumption of wildlife was issued in February last year as the coronavirus surged in Wuhan, the situation has improved but only marginally, according to Shah.

“You can no longer see exotic wildlife for sale openly at wet markets in China. But they still sell all kinds of birds in unsanitary conditions. And in a lot of those markets we found that if you want a certain animal, no matter what it is, vendors can get it for you despite the ban.”

China banned the trade and consumption of wild animals after the coronavirus – thought to have originated possibly in a bat – emerged in Wuhan. NGOs say it is still possible to get banned animals if you know who to ask [Alex Plavevski/EPA]

This is not the first time China has attempted to end the bushmeat trade.


In 2002, wildlife markets were closed because of SARS but reopened later because of economic pressure. In 2016, the Chinese Academy of Engineers valued the country’s wildlife industry at $76bn, with bush meat accounting for $19bn of business activity each year and employing 6.3 million people in China.

Right direction

In Malaysia, captured wildlife and bushmeat was sometimes sold at wet markets before the pandemic. But it was more commonly available through direct sales and restaurants.

In August of last year, now-retired Inspector General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador gave district police chiefs one month to ensure their areas were free of illegal restaurants selling bushmeat. The wildlife department was instructed to assist police.

“Don’t tell me with 300 to 500 personnel in an area, the existence of restaurants and illegal premises selling exotic animals can’t be detected?” Abdul Hamid said at the time.

A series of high-profile wild meat seizures followed at markets, restaurants and private homes.

Elizabeth John, the Kuala Lumpur-based spokesperson for TRAFFIC, an NGO fighting the illegal trade in wildlife, says raids are a signal of both success and failure.


“In forming this joint task force between police and the wildlife officials, it’s definitely a move in the right direction,” she said. “But the fact that we have seen seizures continue even during the pandemic shows that warnings have not changed attitudes among consumers. Despite the risks it poses, the desire to eat wildlife is still out there.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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Five critically endangered monkeys shot dead in Vietnam

Issued on: 19/10/2021 - 

A baby douc langur walks along a branch at the Singapore Zoo

 Roslan RAHMAN AFP/File

Hanoi (AFP)

Poachers in Vietnam have shot dead five critically endangered langurs, a type of monkey killed for bushmeat and traditional medicine, state media said Tuesday.

Rangers and police found the dead grey-shanked douc langurs during a regular patrol of forests in Quang Ngai province.

Restricted to the forests of central Vietnam, the known global population of this type of langur is less than 1,000, according to conservation group Fauna and Flora International (FFI).

Other conservation groups estimate their number may be higher as some habitat areas have not yet been surveyed.

The primate is a regular victim of the illegal wildlife trade, and is sought after for bushmeat, traditional medicine and the pet trade, FFI says. They are also threatened by deforestation.

It is listed as "critically endangered", the highest risk category under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

In Quang Ngai, the poachers ran off, leaving behind a motorbike, bullets and silencers, VNExpress news site said in a report.

Local authorities are "looking into the case", it added.

The grey-shanked douc langur is listed in Vietnam's "red book", making it a criminal offence to kill one.

But law enforcement is a huge issue.

"Authorities must find those responsible," said Ha Thang Long, director of GreenViet, which works in biodiversity conservation in Vietnam's central regions.

"If we fail to... bring them to justice, this will continue to happen."

Under Vietnamese law, poachers in such a case could face seven years in jail, he added.

Vietnam is home to some of the world's most endangered species, including the Red River giant soft-shell turtle, the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey and the saola, a type of mountainous antelope.

Wild animals are under constant threat in the country, with their body parts in high demand for both food and traditional medicine.

© 2021 AFP

The new coronavirus emerged from the global wildlife trade – and may be devastating enough to end it
by George Wittemyer, The Conversation

Coat made of pangolin scales, on display at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. The coat was given to King George III in 1820, along with a helmet also made with pangolin scales. Credit: Gaius Cornelius/WikipediaCOVID-19 is one of countless emerging infectious diseases that are zoonotic, meaning they originate in animals. About 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, accounting for billions of illnesses and millions of deaths annually across the globe.


When these diseases spill over to humans, the cause frequently is human behaviors, including habitat destruction and the multibillion-dollar international wildlife trade—the latter being the suspected source of the novel coronavirus.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments to impose severe restrictions, such as social distancing, that will have massive economic costs. But there has been less discussion about identifying and changing behaviors that contribute to the emergence of zoonotic diseases. As a conservation biologist, I believe this outbreak demonstrates the urgent need to end the global wildlife trade.

Markets for disease

As many Americans now know, the COVID-19 coronavirus is one of a family of coronaviruses commonly found in bats. It is suspected to have passed through a mammal, perhaps pangolins – the most-trafficked animal on the planet—before jumping to humans.

The virus's spillover to humans is believed to have occurred in a so-called wet market in China. At these markets, live, wild-caught animals, farm-raised wild species and livestock frequently intermingle in conditions that are unsanitary and highly stressful for the animals. These circumstances are ripe for infection and spillover.

The current outbreak is just the latest example of viruses jumping from animals to humans. HIV is perhaps the most infamous example: It originated from chimps in central Africa and still kills hundreds of thousands of people annually. It likely jumped to humans through consumption of bushmeat, or meat from wildlife, which is also the likely origin of several Ebola oubreaks. PREDICT, a U.S.-funded nonprofit, suggests there are thousands of viral species circulating in birds and mammals that pose a direct risk to humans.

Smuggled leopard skin and ivory seized at New Orleans International Airport, Feb. 17, 2017. Credit: USFWS

Decimating wildlife and humans


Trade in wildlife has decimated populations and species for millennia and is one of the five key drivers of wildlife declines. People hunt and deal in animals and animal parts for food, medicine and other uses. This commerce has an estimated value of US$18 billion annually just in China, which is believed to be the largest market globally for such products.

My own work focuses on African and Asian elephants, which are severely threatened by the wildlife trade. Demand for elephant ivory has caused the deaths of more than 100,000 elephants in the last 15 years.

Conservationists have been working for years to end the wildlife trade or enforce strict regulations to ensure that it is conducted in ways that do not threaten species' survival. Initially, the focus was on stemming the decline of threatened species. But today it is evident that this trade also harms humans.

For example, conservation organizations estimate that more than 100 rangers are killed protecting wildlife every year, often by poachers and armed militias targeting high-value species such as rhinos and elephants. Violence associated with the wildlife trade affects local communities, which typically are poor and rural.

The wildlife trade's disease implications have received less popular attention over the past decade. This may be because bushmeat trade and consumption targets less-charismatic species, provides a key protein source in some communities and is a driver of economic activity in some remote rural areas.

Will China follow through?

In China, wild animal sales and consumption are deeply embedded culturally and represent an influential economic sector. Chinese authorities see them as a key revenue generator for impoverished rural communities, and have promoted national policies that encourage the trade despite its risks.

Basketball star Yao Ming has campaigned for over a decade to dissuade Chinese consumers from buying wildlife products.

In 2002-2003, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS—a disease caused by a zoonotic coronavirus transmitted through live wildlife markets—emerged in China and spread to 26 countries. Then as now, bats were a likely source.

In response, the Chinese government enacted strict regulations designed to end wildlife trade and its associated risks. But policies later were weakened under cultural and economic pressure.

Now repercussions from the COVID-19 pandemic are driving faster, stronger reforms. China has announced a temporary ban on all wildlife trade and a permanent ban on wildlife trade for food. Vietnam's prime minister has proposed a similar ban, and other neighboring countries are under pressure to follow this lead.

Conservation scientists are hearing rumors that wildlife markets on China's borders—which often sell endangered species whose sale is banned within China—are collapsing as the spread of coronavirus cuts into tourism and related commerce. Similarly, there are reports that in Africa, trade in pangolin and other wildlife products is shrinking in response to coronavirus fears.

However, I worry that these changes won't last. The Chinese government has already stated that its initial bans on medicinal wildlife products and wildlife products for non-consumption are temporary and will be relaxed in the future.

This is not sufficient. In my view, terminating the damaging and dangerous trade in wildlife will require concerted global pressure on the governments that allow it, plus internal campaigns to help end the demand that drives such trade. Without cultural change, the likely outcomes will be relaxed bans or an expansion of illegal wildlife trafficking.

Africa has borne the greatest costs from the illegal wildlife trade, which has ravaged its natural resources and fueled insecurity. A pandemic-driven global recession and cessation of tourism will drastically reduce income in wildlife-related industries. Poaching will likely increase, potentially for international trade, but also for local bushmeat markets. And falling tourism revenues will undercut local support for protecting wild animals.

On top of this, if COVID-19 spreads across the continent, Africa could also suffer major losses of human life from a pandemic that could have started in an illegally traded African pangolin.

Like other disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to implement solutions that will ultimately benefit humans and the planet. I hope one result is that nations join together to end the costly trade and consumption of wildlife.


Explore furtherCovid-19 pandemic puts illegal wildlife trade in the spotlight
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How Uganda’s endangered mountain gorillas survived the pandemic

Relationships between forest dwellers and the animals have deteriorated in recent years, especially during the pandemic.

A gorilla trapped in a snare in Bwindi forest, Uganda 

[File: Jack Dutton/Al Jazeera]

By Jack Dutton
Published On 5 Apr 2022

Bwindi, Uganda – According to legend, the Batwa pygmy forest dwellers of southwestern Uganda have lived in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for more than 300 years, sharing their home with the majority of the world’s endangered mountain gorillas, but also being wary of them.

If the Batwa met a gorilla in the forest on the way to a hunt, they would feel like they met a bad omen, Wilber Tumwesigye, one of the Bwindi ranger guides told Al Jazeera.

“They would then think that they’re not going to be successful, so what they did was go back home,” he said. “They saw them as a bad animal. That’s also why I think these gorillas have survived. If it wasn’t for that, they would be spearing them and eating them.”

The forest is home to approximately 500 mountain gorillas, nearly half of the world’s gorilla population. In 1991, when Bwindi was established as a national park for the gorillas, authorities controversially evicted the Indigenous people from the forest, to nearby districts.

Still, humans and gorillas continued to interact. Conservationists and tourists often go gorilla trekking in the forest, and villagers often come into the park to look for food and natural resources. Sometimes, the primates also come to nearby villages to feed on farmers’ crops.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic began and that wiped out tourism in Bwindi, but interactions between the gorillas and villagers conversely increased. Between March and October 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the park was closed to the public.

During that period, illegal poaching for bushmeat also skyrocketed.

“Over the six-month period, we collected 832 snares – that translates to around 150 snares in a month,” said Nelson Guma, chief warden for the Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Area (BMCA). “Before the lockdown, in a year, we would get around 20.”

The snares help catch bush meat – such as antelope, duiker and bushpigs – for the hunter’s consumption and to sell to community members.

“A bush pig can fetch up to 100,000 shillings ($28),” says Nahabwe Job, 45, a Bwindi conservation ranger in Buhoma, a village on the northern edge of the park. He is a member of the Human Gorilla Conflict Group (HUGO), established in 1998 to mediate human-gorilla conflicts.

Charles Tumwesigye (unrelated to Wilber), deputy director, field operations at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), saw similar spikes in illegal poaching in national parks across the country.

“People left town because they couldn’t work. They were redundant and we thought that many youths who were working in towns, because of the lockdowns, had gone and set snares in the parks,” he said.

“[Also] even the rangers who go out to monitor illegal activities were not going to work, so the poachers thought: ‘Now there is a lockdown, nobody can go so it’s an opportunity for us to go and set snares without being caught.’”

Ugandan Wildlife Authority’s Chief Park Warden of Murchison Falls Edison Nuwamanya, standing by snares villagers use to capture wild animals for bush meat 

[File: Jack Dutton/ Al Jazeera]

Before the pandemic, tourism made up 7.7 percent of Uganda’s GDP. Bwindi alone brought in $2m monthly and accounted for 60 percent of UWA’s revenue.

By the end of 2020, local businesses close to the park – safari lodges, tour companies, souvenir shops – all but closed down. The villages around the park usually get 20 percent of the total funds from the gorilla tracking permits tourists buy for Bwindi.

The money is paid annually and goes towards community projects, such as new schools and health centres. But in 2020 and 2021, they were not given that money because of the dramatic drop in tourism, Guma said.
Death and deterrence

In June 2020, one of Uganda’s best-known mountain gorillas was killed by a poacher. Rafiki, a 25-year-old large silverback who led a group of 17 gorillas, was speared to death by a poacher who had set traps to catch bush meat.

In his testimony, the suspect said he had come to check on the traps when he saw Rafiki’s group there. The man said the animal saw him as a threat and attacked him, so he had to lunge at Rafiki in self-defence.

A court handed the perpetrator an 11-year prison sentence – the longest anyone has ever been put in jail for killing a wild animal in Uganda.

Rafiki’s group was habituated, meaning that the apes were used to human contact and would not usually act aggressively. Job said the communities were “shocked” after Rafiki’s death, so the UWA and villagers had to implement a conservation action plan to prevent a repeat incident in future.

Gorillas were often coming out of the park and into villages, where they would feed on farmers’ crops and vegetation like eucalyptus trees for their high salt content. Villagers were encouraged to replace these trees with crops like tea and coffee, which are unpalatable to the great apes but are good revenue earners.

The UWA established “flight camps” — bases of 24 rangers situated in hunting hotspots in the national park to stop poaching and the gorillas getting caught in the traps. Four camps were initially established, with rangers patrolling eight-kilometre radiuses, and three remain active, Guma said. The camps deterred poachers from laying traps in the forest, shifting location depending on the position of poachers.

Five HUGO members, individuals in the community who have received conservation training – are stationed in each village next to Bwindi. During the pandemic, they met regularly and also herded gorillas back into the forest whenever they came into the villages and the wildlife authority was not present.

Without tourism, many villagers living close to the park were without income and much food, so the UWA and local conservationists supplied villages with fast-growing seeds — such as pumpkins, tomatoes, onions and amaranths — for sustenance. Community members were also educated about conservation issues and the health risks of eating bushmeat.

Villagers, especially those working in the park, like the porters and rangers, were encouraged to get vaccinated to protect the gorillas from COVID-19. Tourists were also told to wear masks, sanitise and social distance from the gorillas to protect them from airborne diseases.

COVID-19 concerns

Since Rafiki, no other gorillas have died amid a surge in poaching during the pandemic and since 2020, there have been at least 34 new births, according to Guma. Still, concerns about COVID-19 remain.

“It’s one of the things that keeps me awake at night, especially when you’ve had these variants, the Delta and the Omicron variant which is very, very contagious,” veterinarian and gorilla expert Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka said.

Although there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Bwindi’s gorillas, the disease has quickly spread among gorillas in zoos in Atlanta, Prague and San Diego.

Humans share about 98.4 percent of their DNA with gorillas. “The cost of illness was similar to humans, where the eldest aged Silverback got very, very ill, it was 48 years old, and he had to get monoclonal antibodies, which is a very expensive treatment for COVID,” the vet said.

In the wild, gorillas move around in groups and silverbacks – older dominant males – may fight among themselves, meaning that a virus can quickly spread.

If COVID-19 spread to the endangered population, Kalema-Zikusoka said, they would require 24-hour monitoring and quarantining, which would be “a total nightmare” because they are wild animals.

Currently, only 6.5 percent of Ugandans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but she argued that when the vaccine is widely available, it should become mandatory. “The community of Bwindi knows that if they want tourism to come back like it was before, they need to be vaccinated,” she said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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More avoidable pandemics await a heedless world

November 11th, 2020, by Tim Radford

On sale in China: Bushmeat, an open road to microbial transfer between species. 

Image: By Simon Law, via Wikimedia Commons

There will be more avoidable pandemics, more devastating and lethal, as humans intrude further upon the planet’s forests.

LONDON, 11 November, 2020 − Once again, naturalists have warned that the invasion of wilderness can seriously damage human health: avoidable pandemics − Covid-19 is an instance of a disease transferred from wild mammals to humans − threaten to arrive more often, spread more rapidly, do more damage to the global economy, and kill more people.

That’s because the odds on even more fearful infections remain very high: the world’s wild mammals could between them be hosts to 1.7 million viruses that have yet to be identified and named. If only a third of them them could infect humans, that’s 540,000 new diseases waiting to happen.

The number could be higher: perhaps 850,000 potential infections lie so far undisturbed, waiting to happen.

A new report by a team of 22 global experts warns that Covid-19 is at least the sixth global health pandemic since the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918: all had their origins in microbes carried by animals, and all were awakened and spread by human interaction with the wilderness.

By July 2020, the coronavirus linked to a market in wild animals in Wuhan in China had spread around the planet at a cost of between US$8 trillion and $16tn. The world has already seen the Ebola virus devastating West African communities, the HIV/Aids epidemic, Zika, and many others claiming lives in the last century.

Wilderness no more

The arrival of new zoonotic diseases − infections caught from other creatures − has been counted at roughly two a year since 1918. The number could increase to as many as five a year. And most of them will be linked to increasing human impact upon what had once been largely undisturbed wilderness.

“There is no great mystery about the cause of the Covid-19 pandemic − or of any modern pandemic”, said Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance and chair of a workshop of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES for short) that assembled the research.

“The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment. Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. This is the path to pandemics.”

All living things are host to viruses and other microbes: in most cases host and parasite adapt to live peaceably with each other. The danger comes when a microbe transfers to a new host that is entirely unprepared for the invader.

“We still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge. We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires a greater focus on prevention”

What became known as the human immuno-deficiency virus HIV-1 is believed to have emerged first in West or Central Africa from the remains of chimpanzees hunted and sold for bushmeat. It spread around the planet within a decade, to claim millions of lives as the disease AIDS. Ebola infects both primates and humans: in an outbreak among humans, it has been known to kill 90% of all infected people.

Researchers have consistently linked epidemic and pandemic outbreaks to climate change, to the destruction and degradation of the wilderness, and to the traffic in wild creatures as objects of value or commerce.

And all are consequences ultimately of exponential growth in human numbers in the last century, a growth that puts ever greater pressure on what had once been largely undisturbed tropical forest, grassland and wetland.

Around a quarter of all wild terrestrial vertebrate species are traded globally. International, legal wildlife trade has increased fivefold in revenue in the last 14 years. It is now worth an estimated $107bn.

The illegal traffic in wildlife could be worth anywhere between $7bn and $23bn annually. The US imports around 10 to 20 million wild animals a year. In China in 2016, what is now called wildlife farming employed 14 million people and generated $77bn in revenue.

Negligible cost

Researchers have already argued that intrusion into what should be protected ecosystems that are home to the shrinking pool of wild birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians − a million species could be nearing global extinction − not only threatens the wellbeing of the planet; it also generates an increasing health hazard.

The latest study lists a range of policy options to reduce the risk of assault by new plagues. These rest upon greater awareness of, and respect for, the natural capital of the wilderness. Conservation of this kind costs money, but at least 100 times less than the toll of successive pandemics likely without a change in human attitudes.

“We have increasing ability to prevent pandemics, but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability,” Dr Daszak said. “Our approach has effectively stagnated − we still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics.

“We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires a greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction.” − Climate News Network

Coronavirus lockdowns increase poaching in Asia, Africa

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and MICHAEL CASEY June 21, 2020

1 of 11
This November 2014 photo provided by the Wildlife Trust of India shows a leopard caught in a trap in a forest in Karnataka, India. Authorities in India are concerned a 2020 spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive. (WTI via AP)

NEW DELHI (AP) — A camera trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of its carcass revealed why the creature died: a poacher’s wire snare punctured its windpipe and sapped its strength as the wound festered for days.

Snares like this one set in southern India’s dense forest have become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families.

Authorities in India are concerned this spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

“It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, a wildlife biologist with the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India.

Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there also were numerous other poaching casualities — gazelles in grasslands, foot-long giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple morhens.

In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species.

One of the biggest disruptions involves the endangered pangolin. Often caught in parts of Africa and Asia, the anteater-like animals are smuggled mostly to China and Southeast Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy and scales are used in traditional medicine.

In April, the Wildlife Justice Commission reported traders were stockpiling pangolin scales in several Southeast Asia countries awaiting an end to the pandemic.

Rhino horn is being stockpiled in Mozambique, the report said, and ivory traders in Southeast Asia are struggling to sell the stockpiles amassed since China’s 2017 ban on trade in ivory products. The pandemic compounded their plight because many Chinese customers were unable to travel to ivory markets in Cambodia, Laos and other countries.

They are desperate to get it off their hands. Nobody wants to be stuck with that product,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence for the commission.

The illegal trade in pangolins continued “unabated” within Africa but international trade has been disrupted by port closures, said Ray Jansen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group.

“We have witnessed some trade via air while major ship routes are still closed but we expect a flood of trade once shipping avenues reopen again,” Jansen said.

Fears that organized poaching in Africa would spike largely have not materialized — partly because ranger patrols have continued in many national parks and reserves.

Emma Stokes, director of the Central Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said patrolling national parks in several African countries has been designated essential work.

But she has heard about increased hunting of animals outside parks. “We are expecting to see an increase in bushmeat hunting for food – duikers, antelopes and monkeys,” she said.

Jansen also said bushmeat poaching was soaring, especially in parts of southern Africa. “Rural people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,” he said.

There are also signs of increased poaching in parts of Asia.
Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak

A greater one-horned rhino was gunned down May 9 in India’s Kaziranga National Park -- the first case in over a year. Three people, suspected to be a part of an international poaching ring, were arrested on June 1 with automatic rifles and ammunition, said Uttam Saikia, a wildlife warden.

As in other parts of the world, poachers in Kaziranga pay poor families paltry sums of money to help them. With families losing work from the lockdown, “they will definitely take advantage of this,” warned Saikia.

In neighboring Nepal, where the virus has ravaged important income from migrants and tourists, the first month of lockdown saw more forest-related crimes, including poaching and illegal logging, than the previous 11 months, according to a review by the government and World Wildlife Fund or WWF.

For many migrants returning to villages after losing jobs, forests were the “easiest source” of sustenance, said Shiv Raj Bhatta, director of programs at WWF Nepal.

In Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society documented in April the poisoning in Cambodia of three critically endangered giant ibises for the wading bird’s meat. More than 100 painted stork chicks were also poached in late March in Cambodia at the largest waterbird colony in Southeast Asia.

“Suddenly rural people have little to turn to but natural resources and we’re already seeing a spike in poaching,” said Colin Poole, the group’s regional director for the Greater Mekong.

Heartened by closure of wildlife markets in China over concerns about a possible link between the trade and the coronavirus, several conservation groups are calling for governments to put measures in place to avoid future pandemics. Among them is a global ban on commercial sale of wild birds and mammals destined for the dinner table.

Others say an international treaty, known as CITES, which regulates the trade in endangered plants and animals, should be expanded to incorporate public health concerns. They point out that some commonly traded species, such as horseshoe bats, often carry viruses but are currently not subject to trade restrictions under CITES.

“That is a big gap in the framework,” said John Scanlon, former Secretary-General of CITES now with African Parks. ”We may find that there may be certain animals that should be listed and not be traded or traded under strict conditions and certain markets that ought to be closed.”


___

Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Christina Larson contributed from Washington.

___

On Twitter follow Ghosal: @aniruddhg1 and Casey:@mcasey1

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.'

___

Coronavirus lockdowns increase poaching in Asia, Africa

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and MICHAEL CASEY

June 21, 2020

1 of 11
This November 2014 photo provided by the Wildlife Trust of India shows a leopard caught in a trap in a forest in Karnataka, India. Authorities in India are concerned a 2020 spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive. (WTI via AP)


NEW DELHI (AP) — A camera trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of its carcass revealed why the creature died: a poacher’s wire snare punctured its windpipe and sapped its strength as the wound festered for days.

Snares like this one set in southern India’s dense forest have become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families.

Authorities in India are concerned this spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

“It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, a wildlife biologist with the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India.

Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there also were numerous other poaching casualities — gazelles in grasslands, foot-long giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple morhens.

In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species.

One of the biggest disruptions involves the endangered pangolin. Often caught in parts of Africa and Asia, the anteater-like animals are smuggled mostly to China and Southeast Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy and scales are used in traditional medicine.

In April, the Wildlife Justice Commission reported traders were stockpiling pangolin scales in several Southeast Asia countries awaiting an end to the pandemic.

Rhino horn is being stockpiled in Mozambique, the report said, and ivory traders in Southeast Asia are struggling to sell the stockpiles amassed since China’s 2017 ban on trade in ivory products. The pandemic compounded their plight because many Chinese customers were unable to travel to ivory markets in Cambodia, Laos and other countries.

“They are desperate to get it off their hands. Nobody wants to be stuck with that product,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence for the commission.

The illegal trade in pangolins continued “unabated” within Africa but international trade has been disrupted by port closures, said Ray Jansen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group.

“We have witnessed some trade via air while major ship routes are still closed but we expect a flood of trade once shipping avenues reopen again,” Jansen said.

Fears that organized poaching in Africa would spike largely have not materialized — partly because ranger patrols have continued in many national parks and reserves.

Emma Stokes, director of the Central Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said patrolling national parks in several African countries has been designated essential work.

But she as heard about increased hunting of animals outside parks. “We are expecting to see an increase in bushmeat hunting for food – duikers, antelopes and monkeys,” she said.

Jansen also said bushmeat poaching was soaring, especially in parts of southern Africa. “Rural people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,” he said.

There are also signs of increased poaching in parts of Asia.

A greater one-horned rhino was gunned down May 9 in India’s Kaziranga National Park -- the first case in over a year. Three people, suspected to be a part of an international poaching ring, were arrested on June 1 with automatic rifles and ammunition, said Uttam Saikia, a wildlife warden.

As in other parts of the world, poachers in Kaziranga pay poor families paltry sums of money to help them. With families losing work from the lockdown, “they will definitely take advantage of this,” warned Saikia.

In neighboring Nepal, where the virus has ravaged important income from migrants and tourists, the first month of lockdown saw more forest-related crimes, including poaching and illegal logging, than the previous 11 months, according to a review by the government and World Wildlife Fund or WWF.

For many migrants returning to villages after losing jobs, forests were the “easiest source” of sustenance, said Shiv Raj Bhatta, director of programs at WWF Nepal.

In Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society documented in April the poisoning in Cambodia of three critically endangered giant ibises for the wading bird’s meat. More than 100 painted stork chicks were also poached in late March in Cambodia at the largest waterbird colony in Southeast Asia.

“Suddenly rural people have little to turn to but natural resources and we’re already seeing a spike in poaching,” said Colin Poole, the group’s regional director for the Greater Mekong.

Heartened by closure of wildlife markets in China over concerns about a possible link between the trade and the coronavirus, several conservation groups are calling for governments to put measures in place to avoid future pandemics. Among them is a global ban on commercial sale of wild birds and mammals destined for the dinner table.

Others say an international treaty, known as CITES, which regulates the trade in endangered plants and animals, should be expanded to incorporate public health concerns. They point out that some commonly traded species, such as horseshoe bats, often carry viruses but are currently not subject to trade restrictions under CITES.

“That is a big gap in the framework,” said John Scanlon, former Secretary-General of CITES now with African Parks. ”We may find that there may be certain animals that should be listed and not be traded or traded under strict conditions and certain markets that ought to be closed.”
___
Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Christina Larson contributed from Washington.

On Twitter follow Ghosal: @aniruddhg1 and Casey:@mcasey1
___


The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
Fewer tourists meant less money for wildlife during the pandemic – but there's an alternative

by Joseph Hamm, The Conversation

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

"Nature is healing" read social media posts at the outset of the pandemic, as birdsong replaced the drone of traffic during lockdown. But for wildlife conservation in Africa, the reality was very different. Anti-poaching operations in protected areas were paused or restricted to limit the spread of the virus, leaving populations of threatened species like the African lion vulnerable. Now these areas are confronting COVID-19's economic fallout, and research suggests that illegal hunting, mining, deforestation, and bushmeat consumption all tend to increase during downturns.

Safari tours and other forms of wildlife tourism in Africa generate more than US$29 billion each year. Whether it's the salaries of park rangers or money for community outreach and education, much of the funding for conservation comes from this tourism revenue, including 80% of the annual budget of South African National Parks. Travel restrictions during the pandemic have gutted visitor numbers, with 90% of African tour operators reporting a drop in bookings of three-quarters or more. Many protected areas were suffering severe budget shortfalls even before the pandemic.

COVID-19 exposed the fragility of this model of conservation, but is there another way?

Conservation basic income

The idea of a conservation basic income (CBI) was recently proposed to fund efforts to safeguard biodiversity. The concept is simple: people living alongside endangered wildlife receive an unconditional monthly income to reduce their dependence on hunting for bushmeat or chopping down trees for timber and firewood.

You may have already heard of something similar. Several economists and politicians have suggested that governments could improve social security by paying each citizen a universal basic income – a regular and guaranteed payment sufficient to cover basic needs, including food and housing.

Instead of relying on tourist numbers remaining stable, the money for a CBI program could be raised in a way that's more dependable and resilient to shocks, such as a tax on carbon pollution. The UK government's recent ten-point environment plan included another option with its commitment to "green finance," which would involve governments encouraging private investment in environmental causes. CBI could also work in areas where there are many threatened species, but few tourists, such as central Africa.

Paying for ecosystem services

Another approach aiming to tackle conservation's over-reliance on tourism is monetising ecosystem services. This is an arrangement in which habitats like woodland and the environmental services they provide, like carbon storage, are bought and sold on an international market. Wildlife can be protected as a result, and businesses or states can offset their pollution or environmental damage by investing in these schemes, which now number more than 550 worldwide, with annual transactions in the region of US$40 billion.

Both wildlife tourism and payments for ecosystem services attach a monetary value to biodiversity, whether as a draw for tourists, or to maintain useful ecosystem services. This is supposed to prioritize protection ahead of more damaging methods of generating income. But in reality, these incentives often fail to compete with the appeal of more lucrative industries, such as logging or mining.

A new approach

Instead of paying for services, a conservation basic income compensates local people for the infringements and costs that conservation entails. Tourists might pay a lot to visit well-guarded reserves filled with wildlife, but restrictions on harvesting resources from these areas directly affect local communities. Having a guaranteed monthly income could mean people have less cause to resort to small-scale mining or poaching, and could help them recoup the losses that living alongside large wild animals incurs, such as livestock taken by predators.

It's still a relatively new idea though and hasn't been implemented yet, but one charity is raising money to conduct a two-year trial in an area of Zimbabwe with high levels of poverty and poaching. Each month, every adult would receive US$50 and every child US$20 (paid to their mother or guardian), with payments delivered by mobile phone.

As with any new idea, questions abound. Would increased income result in bigger environmental impacts, as people can more easily afford land-clearing equipment, for instance? Is it possible that such a scheme attracts new arrivals to the area, increasing local pressure?

It's important to remember that the threats facing the world's biodiversity are varied. Economic considerations form only part of a complex picture. How CBI would interact with a cultural tradition like Maasai lion hunting, for instance, is still unclear. But 2020 has exposed the fatal flaws in a conservation model reliant on wealthy tourists and regular air travel. New ideas are vital in the effort to safeguard the environment post-pandemic.


Explore further Divergent wildlife conservation perspectives in Africa
Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

On the frontline of Liberia's fight to save the pangolin

A white-bellied pangolin which was rescued from local animal traffickers. - Copyright Isaac Kasamani AFP

By Doloresz Katanich with AFP • Updated: 06/03/2022 - 09:09

Conservationists in Liberia are determined to stop the generations-old tradition of hunting pangolins, which are vulnerable to extinction due to illegal poaching.

Clutching a single-barrelled rifle in lush northern Liberia, Emmanuel says his 10 children were able to get an education thanks to his gun.

He regularly ignores the ban on hunting bushmeat and earns most of his cash catching pangolins and monkeys in the surrounding jungle.

In the dry season, Emmanuel waits for dark and then hikes into the forest with his rifle and machete.

A hunter poses for a portrait with his long barrel hunting gun on the outskirts of Bopolu on November 15, 2021

John Wessels/AFP

Pangolins, scale-covered insect-eating mammals that are typically the size of a full-grown cat, are mostly active at night, snuffling through deadwood for ants and termites.

The species is under threat worldwide but remains a delicacy in the impoverished West African country.

Their scales - made of keratin, like human nails - are also prized by consumers in Asia for their supposed medicinal properties.

"We kill it, we eat it," says Emmanuel, in a village in Gbarpolu County, five-hours drive north of the capital Monrovia along pitted dirt roads.

"Then the scales, we sell it," says the hunter. "There's no other option".

Pangolins are disappearing worldwide

A 2020 study by the US Agency for International Development estimated that between 650,000 and 8.5 million pangolins were removed from the wild between 2009 and 2020.

The population is declining worldwide due to deforestation, bushmeat consumption, and the scales trade.

A man displays a packet of Pangolin scales, ready to be sold on the outskirts of Bopolu on November 14, 2021.

John Wessels/AFP

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), seizures of pangolin scales have increased tenfold since 2014, suggesting a booming global trade.
Efforts to stamp out illegal poaching in Liberia

Pangolins are believed to be the most trafficked animal in the world and Liberia is one of the main origin countries. Over 40 per cent of the country is covered in rainforest and governance is weak. The country is also still recovering from brutal civil wars from 1989 to 2003, and from the 2014-16 Ebola crisis.

With conservationists sounding the alarm, Liberia's government banned the unlicensed hunting of protected species in 2016, imposing up to six months in prison or a maximum €4,500 ($5,000) fine.

But the government is up against the dual forces of tradition and poverty as it tries to reduce poaching of these vulnerable animals.

ZOONOSIS

Lust for giraffe meat, organs in Tanzania leading to extinction of tallest animal

Experts urge awareness campaigns to dispel superstitious beliefs that giraffe organs help treat chronic diseases

Kizito Makoye |10.07.2022

FILE PHOTO

MANYARA, Tanzania

The world’s tallest animal, the giraffe, may be on the brink of extinction in the East African country of Tanzania, as they are being poached to meet the demand for bushmeat and superstitious beliefs that their organs ward off misfortune and treat diseases like HIV/AIDS.

“This is a very serious problem here. Giraffes are innocently being killed by poachers. I urge relevant authorities to stop this madness,” said Kulwa Herman, a resident of the northern Manyara Region, known for the world-famous Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara National Park.

He blamed the large-scale poaching on beliefs that the brain and bone marrow of giraffes can cure chronic diseases, including HIV/AIDS, and also boost men’s libido.

“People are being deceived by witch doctors to believe that giraffe body parts have magical powers. It’s absolute nonsense,” Herman told Anadolu Agency.

The giraffe's chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, the conical skin-covered bone structures on their heads, and its spotted coat patterns.

According to the international Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), Masai or Tanzanian giraffe have been already declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The most populous giraffe three decades ago with an estimated 71,000 individuals, only 45,400 Masai giraffes remain in the wild today, according to the foundation.

But the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWRI) claims that their aerial survey data recently found a mere 28,850 giraffes in the region.

Despite the giraffe being a national symbol protected under the country's conservation laws, independent researchers believe that almost 2,246 giraffes are illegally poached every year.

Alleged poacher, officer collusion

Herman said that gun-wielding poachers from the northern Arusha region often collude with local ward officers to trap and kill giraffes. They then extract their hair, tail, brains, and fats, which are highly valued on the black market, before escaping into the darkness.

“It’s very easy to kill a giraffe, that’s why many people are attracted to doing so. A single gunshot is more than enough to take down the big animal,” he said.

Benjamin Kuzaga, Manyara regional commander of the police force, said that in the past three months they have seized 560 kilograms (1,235 pounds) of poached giraffe meat.

“This is a serious problem here in Manyara,” said Jeremia Kizinga, a resident of Vilima Viwili village. “The police force should intervene, otherwise these animals will be finished.”

William Mwakilema, commissioner of conservation at Tanzania National Parks Authority, said growing human activity and settlements coming up near the wildlife corridors in the region have also increased the killing of giraffes.

Need to create awareness

“We’re working hard along with other security organs to identify and dismantle a vicious network of criminals involved in this illegal business,” he said. “We will leave no stone unturned until all the perpetrators are arrested and punished under the law.”

Selemani Juma, a local leader at Vilima Vitatu village in Manyara, said there was an urgent need to create awareness to stamp our superstitious beliefs.

He said the illegal trade is fueled by mistaken beliefs that giraffes’ fats and bone marrow and other organs help to treat chronic diseases and increase male sexual prowess.

“These claims are not true. We’re trying to educate the people to ignore these false claims and understand the importance of conserving wildlife, including giraffes, whose population is decreasing at an alarming rate,” he said.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for BUSHMEAT 

Spillover (book) - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Spillover_(book)

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic is a book written in 2012 by American writer David Quammen. ... Upon its release, Spillover received ...

Author: David Quammen

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company

Published: 2012

Pages: 592 p

‎Synopsis · ‎Viruses and pathogens... · ‎Reception