Members of the Philippine Coast Guard found 400 boxes of frozen scaly anteaters in the cargo hold of the F/B Ming Long Yu, the Chinese fishing vessel that ran aground in at the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park last week, the PCG said Monday.
Commodore Enrico Efren Evangelista, Coast Guard Guard District Palawan chief, said crew members of BRP Romblon and BRP Corregidor found the anteaters while trying to re-float the grounded ship.
“Based on the initial assessment of the PCG team present on the site, the anteaters locally known as ‘pangolins’ were frozen and had already been butchered and dressed,” the Coast Guard said.
Pangolins are hunted for their meat, skin, and scales and are prized in China as both a delicacy and as medicine.
Quoting the International Union of the Conservation of Nature, the PCG said “the rising demands for pangolins, mostly from mainland China, and lax laws are wiping out unique toothless anteaters from their forest habitat in Southeast Asia.” Pangolins can be found in Palawan, but it is not yet known where the ones found on the Ming Long Yu were from.
The Coast Guard is currently conducting an inventory of the anteaters before turning them over to the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development.
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Photo: Philippine Coast Guard
