Date: February 2014

Chiang Mai hub

GVI Thai Elephant Project celebrates World Pangolin Day again!

There are eight species of Pangolins in Africa and Asia; four of these species exist in Asia. The Malayan
pangolin once existed in the forests of Northern Thailand but is thought to of been hunted to near extinction;
the Malayan pangolin is highly endangered and is hunted primarily for medicinal purposes; although it is
protected on Appendix 1 on CITIES it is still one of the most common species illegally traded in South East
Asia.
Due to last years success of celebrating world pangolin day, the approach of February could only mean one
thing; celebrating these wonderful creatures all over again! There have been reports of these rare species in
our surrounding forests so both volunteers and staff where excited to begin preparations. Alex, our biodiversity
intern, and two volunteers lead the preparations by carrying out research on their whereabouts, characteristics
and scat and spoor signs to look for in order to find pangolins.
Once Pangolin day arrived, everybody sat down together on base hut and Alex gave everyone a presentation
displaying their research. Everybody was excited to learn more about pangolins as not many people knew a
great deal about them and both staff and volunteers agreed that they are very interesting creatures.
After the presentation, a village local took staff and volunteers out on a hike into the conservation forest to look
for pangolin tracks. The conservation forest makes up 60 % of Huay Pakoots forest and is special to the
village as it is the one area of land that cannot be cut down for wood, cannot be used for agriculture and the
locals cannot hunt there. There are also ceremonies that have been held in the conservation forest by the
monks to protect the area and all the villagers respect the boundaries of this part of the forest. This means
however, that this is a great spot for biodiversity and is the most likely place for a pangolin habitat.

Volunteers and villagers excited for Pangolin day

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During the hike, everyone was on the lookout for pangolin tracks which they had learned to recognise from the
presentation given by Alex. Although everybody searched very hard in different areas of the conservation
forest, unfortunately no tracks were to be seen but everyone enjoyed the experience and felt educated on
pangolins.
Overall the day was a success as everyone learned about a new species and shared it with their friends on
facebook and twitter in order to get the information all over the world. Alex, our biodiversity intern said; I really
enjoyed organising World Pangolin Day and everyone seemed very enthusiastic about learning about
pangolins and looking for the tracks, it was both fun and informative!

For more information regarding this highly endangered species please click on the link below

http://savepangolins.org/conservation/
http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/1017/
https://www.facebook.com/WorldPangolinDay
http://pangolins.org/2012/01/18/world-pangolin-day-is-february-18-worldpangolinday/
For more information regarding the Thai Elephant Reintroduction programme check out the
social media sites-

Face book - GVI Thailand Chiang Mai

Twitter - @GVIchiangmai

Blog - http://gvithailandenvironmental.blogspot.com/
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