192 documented a shift in intensity and geography, with poaching expanding into Central Africa, to Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. A remarkably large number of pangolins originated in the border areas between those countries, Tinsman said, “where enforcement is really tough because you’re in a multinational situation.” “It’s shocking that so many pangolins are coming out of such a small geographic area.” — Jen Tinsman, forensic scientist, National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, US Fish and Wildlife Service The DNA contains no clear explanation for the shift, but Tinsman and her colleagues speculate that the trend could reflect a few factors: increased enforcement, declining pangolin populations in West Africa, or traffickers taking advantage of new, more convenient trade routes—or some combination of all three. They also note a gross underestimate of the full scale of the pangolin industry. “Many shipments are never detected at all,” they write. Those that aren’t caught by law enforcement range from an estimated 400,000 African pangolins per year to 2.7 million. The testing process to determine the origin of scales that Tinsman and her team built was also crucial, she said. A map of the major trafficking routes for African pangolin products, with the most traveling between Nigeria to China. White dots show origins, black dots represent destinations, and grey dots show transit spots.
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