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Sipho Mabena The endangered pangolin. Picture: Michel Bega In what could be the harshest sentence ever in a pangolin poaching case, the Pretoria Magistrate's Court has slapped Orateng Mekwe with 10 years behind bars without the option of a fine. He and co-accused, Jealous Rungano, a Zimbabwean national sentenced to three years in prison, were this week found guilty and sentenced of contravening the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act. The two also found guilty of carrying...

Picture for illustrative purposes: Michel Bega A pangolin’s life is hanging by a thread after she was rescued from the claws of six poachers in a bust last week in Kyalami. The pangolin, known as Kya, was rescued in a sting operation at Kyalami Corner where six suspects were arrested. The suspects will soon make their second appearance in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court for their formal bail applications. Kya was the fourth pangolin to be rescued this year. The first bust happened in Kempton Park at the beginning of the ye...

Alleged pangolin traffickers arrested in Kyalami while looking for a buyer By Jehran Naidoo Share Durban - Six alleged pangolin traffickers aged between 30 and 43, were arrested by the Hawks on Wednesday in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg. The arrest came as a result of a collaborative effort between the Hawks' Wildlife Trafficking unit and NGO Pangolin Africa, an initiative of the University of Pretoria. Gauteng Hawks spokesperson Captain Lloyd Ramovha said in a statement on Thursday that the six men were arrested at the Kyalami Corner shopping complex. “The unsuspecting syndicate aged bet...

weekly newspaper. It has been a big year for the pangolin: the glaring stage light of Covid-19 has fallen on this shy, scaly mammal as the possible source of the virus that has brought the world to its knees. In February last year, Daily Maverick broke the story linking pangolins as the likeliest vector of Covid-19 via bats to humans. The exact source has not been confirmed yet, but the attention, though it comes from panic and fear, might be the best thing that ever happened to what has been called “the most trafficked mammal you’ve never heard of”.

Lesser-known facts about the ancient, ghostly pangolin  Nica Richards Picture: Michel Bega Trying to get the number of wild pangolins ‘is like trying to count a ghost – it is almost impossible’. Pangolins are some of the world’s oldest inhabitants, but illegal trade may see a species that has called earth home for at least 84 million years disappear.  They may loo...