Vietnam releases endangered pangolins back into wild

By VnExpress   December 29, 2016 | 02:27 am PT
Vietnam releases endangered pangolins back into wild
Employees weigh a pangolin before its release to the forest at a wild animal rescue center in Hanoi, Vietnam on September 9, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Kham
Save Vietnam's Wildlife equipped the animal with tracking devices before their release.

A local conservation group released 54 endangered pangolins into the wild, on Wednesday, Vietnam News Agency reported.

The pangolins were seized during trafficking busts in northern Vietnam and taken to a reserve in Cuc Phuong National Park 90 kilometers south of Hanoi.

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife said they have released a total of 169 pangolins back into the wild this year, all of which have been tagged with tracking devices to allow continued monitoring.

Over the last three years, Vietnamese authorities seized over 2,600 pangolins, along with more than 30 tons of frozen meat and scales.

The country is both a consumer of the animal and a transit point for trafficking networks in neighboring countries.

In Vietnam, pangolins are commonly consumed as specialty dishes at restaurants, used to infuse rice liquor or prescribed in traditional medicine.

Vietnam is currently home of the Chinese pangolin and the Sunda pangolin.

Both were labelled critically endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Related news:

> Endangered pangolins returned to the wild after being saved from traffickers in Vietnam

> Police rescue 149 pangolins from trafficker in northern Vietnam

 
 
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