Poaching grabs the headlines but electric fences kill about 20 times more pangolins in South Africa. Now an academic has set out to solve the problem, writes DAVE CHAMBERS.
A POACHED pangolin is guaranteed to grab a headline or two, especially when it leads to a 10-year prison sentence or the poachers try to sell the animal for R250,000 in a shopping centre car park, both of which happened in South Africa last year.
But the biggest threat to South Africa’s population of scaly anteaters isn’t poachers, who are thought to account for between 50 and 100 pangolins every year. Humans, though, are definitely implicated because annually, up to 2,000 pangolins are killed by electric fences.
These creatures, with armour that ensures they have few natural predators, die wrapped helplessly around the electrified tripwires that legislators and insurers often require either side of a 2.4m electric fence. ..
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ARMOURED VICTIMS
Electric fences tip scales against pangolins
Poaching grabs the headlines but electric fences kill about 20 times more pangolins in South Africa. Now an academic has set out to solve the problem, writes DAVE CHAMBERS.
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A POACHED pangolin is guaranteed to grab a headline or two, especially when it leads to a 10-year prison sentence or the poachers try to sell the animal for R250,000 in a shopping centre car park, both of which happened in South Africa last year.
But the biggest threat to South Africa’s population of scaly anteaters isn’t poachers, who are thought to account for between 50 and 100 pangolins every year. Humans, though, are definitely implicated because annually, up to 2,000 pangolins are killed by electric fences.
These creatures, with armour that ensures they have few natural predators, die wrapped helplessly around the electrified tripwires that legislators and insurers often require either side of a 2.4m electric fence. ..
Registreer gratis om hierdie artikel te lees.
Hallo! Welkom by Vrye Weekblad. Ons inhoud is nou in Afrikaans én Engels beskikbaar.
Al wat jy hoef te doen om gratis te begin lees, is om met jou e-pos te registreer en ’n wagwoord te skep.
Om dit te doen, kliek eenvoudig op “REGISTREER”.
Reeds geregistreer? Kliek op “MELD AAN” om voort te gaan.
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Volgende artikelDave Chambers
JournalistDave joined the “great resignation” and now freelances for a range of South African publications.