680 V. Aditya et al.


Hunting and trade Interviewees reported that several techniques were employed to hunt pangolins (Fig. 3), with the most common being to locate a burrowand dig the pan- golin out, and to hunt with bow and arrow. Most inter- viewees reported that they primarily targeted the Indian muntjac Muntiacus muntjak and wild pig Sus scrofa rather than pangolins. Hunting in general peaked during the Bhumi panduga festival, a tribal festival celebrated at the onset of the monsoon season (June–July) across central and southern India during which villagers hunt in groups of 30–100 individuals; 80% of the interviewees said they still celebrated Bhumi panduga. A range of reasons were given for hunting pangolins (Fig. 4); obtaining scales for trade and meat for consumption were the most common. A small per cent reported using scales for medicinal pur- poses (for the cure of piles and kidney stones). There was a strong belief that scales shaped into rings (Plate 1)are a defence against black magic; 83% of the respondents said pangolin scales were the primary animal part traded. None of the interviewees reported trading of meat either locally or otherwise; it was considered a delicacy, eaten after boiling the animal to remove the scales. Rates received for 1 kg of pangolin scales were INR 10,000–20,000 (USD 138–277), depending on the size and condition of the scales. Most scales were traded locally through middlemen and to nearby towns and cities such as Rajahmundry. Although the trade for export abroad from middlemen and exporters was reportedly well organized, interviewees were apparently not familiar with the trade routes.


Discussion


We believe this is the first baseline assessment of pangolin occurrence, hunting and trade in the northern Eastern Ghats landscape. Our findings indicate that hunting of pan- golins in the region is driven by both commercial (scales for trade) and personal (meat, scales for making rings) reasons. In 20,160 trap-hourswe did not, however, detect any pango- lins in our 16 camera traps. Camera-trap surveys conducted by us and covering 232 km2 inside Papikonda National Park and its buffer in 2014–2015, with a survey effort of 19,512 trap-hours, also failed to detect pangolins (Aditya & Ganesh, 2019), highlighting the potential difficulty of using camera traps to survey rare and elusive species. Ninety-three per cent of the respondents reported a decline in pangolin numbers over the previous decade. This appar- ent reduction in the population along with the species’ secretive nature could have affected our ability to detect it with camera-trap surveys. An alternative explanation is that the Indian pangolin could now be locally extirpated in the northern Eastern Ghats. Ingram et al. (2018) recom- mended that for fossorial species such as pangolins several techniques, such as identification of active burrows for the


FIG. 3 Per cent of the 60 interviewees who mentioned each of the eight methods employed for hunting pangolins.


FIG. 4 Per cent of the 60 interviewees who mentioned each of the five reasons given for hunting pangolins.


PLATE 1 (a) Sale of a hunted pangolin, and (b) ring made out of a pangolin scale.


setting of camera traps, combined with data from hunters and markets, might be effective in monitoring populations. Investigating occurrence and habitat preferences is im-


portant for designing effective conservation interventions for pangolins, particularly in landscapes such as the nor- thern Eastern Ghats, where mammals face a high risk of ex- tinction (Cardillo et al., 2004, 2006; Aditya&Ganesh, 2019). Interviewees indicated that pangolins prefer burrowing in areas with rock crevices and/or boulders, and on hill slopes, consistent with the findings of Karawita et al. (2018), sug- gesting that people in the local communities have informal


Oryx, 2021, 55(5), 677–683 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319001303


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