195 real-time . . . . If somebody in Cameroon confiscates a scale, if they were able to do this in their own lab and they send it, it would take less than a week.” In 2022, a team from UCLA went to Cameroon to lead what Tinsman hopes will be the first of many local workshops bringing together scientists, conservationists, and people from government and nongovernment organizations, to share their findings, and demo the limitations and promises of their geospatial-genomics approach. One of the project’s most encouraging outcomes, Tinsman said, is that researchers and conservationists are part of a growing global community of pangolin lovers and experts, including networks like the volunteer-run IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group. She’s stayed in touch with some of her collaborators through a “very active” WhatsApp group. “I’m on the West Coast so my phone is always blowing up at 2 a.m. with texts from somebody in India who’s just gotten a pangolin baby into their rehab, and they’re getting veterinarian advice from somebody in South Africa,” she said with glee. There and elsewhere, Tinsman sees the glimmers of a budding global movement to conserve pangolins, who are long overdue for more respect, or even just recognition. “Half the time when I tell people I work on pangolins, they think I’ve said penguins because nobody’s heard of them,” Tinsman said. “And then when I explain them, they’re like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to work on penguins?’ Because pangolins are so weird.” Safeguarding Habitats and Wildlife A pangolin scale is being prepared for genomic testing by Tracey-Leigh Prigge, a PhD student at the University of Hong Kong and co-author on the Science paper. (Photo courtesy of the Congo Basin Institute) The new research, she hopes, will help keep them and all that weirdness on the map. “The genomics are cool,” Tinsman said, “but what’s exciting about this is the momentum that pangolins have. People are finally starting to pay attention.”
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