Molecular tracing of confiscated pangolin scales for conservation and illegal trade monitoring in Southeast Asia

Huarong Zhang; Mark P. Miller; Feng Yang; Hon Ki Chan; Philippe Gaubert; Gary Ades; Gunter A. Fischer

doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2015.08.002

Molecular tracing of confiscated pangolin scales for conservation and illegal trade monitoring in Southeast Asia

Global Ecology and Conservation

By: Huarong Zhang, Mark P. Miller, Feng Yang, Hon Ki Chan, Philippe Gaubert, Gary Ades, and Gunter A. Fischer

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2015.08.002

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Abstract

Despite being protected by both international and national regulations, pangolins are threatened by illegal trade. Here we report mitochondrial DNA identification and haplotype richness estimation, using 239 pangolin scale samples from two confiscations in Hong Kong. We found a total of 13 genetically distinct cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) haplotypes in two confiscations (13 and ten haplotypes respectively, with ten shared haplotypes between confiscations). These haplotypes clustered in two distinct clades with one clade representing the Sunda pangolin (Manisjavanica). The other clade did not match with any known Asian pangolin sequences, and likely represented a cryptic pangolin lineage in Asia. By fitting sample coverage and rarefaction/regression models to our sample data, we predicted that the total number of COI haplotypes in two confiscations were 14.86 and 11.06 respectively, suggesting that our sampling caught the majority of haplotypes and that we had adequately characterized each confiscation. We detected substantial sequence divergence among the seized scales, likely evidencing that the Sunda pangolins were harvested over wide geographical areas across Southeast Asia. Our study illustrates the value of applying DNA forensics for illegal wildlife trade monitoring.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Molecular tracing of confiscated pangolin scales for conservation and illegal trade monitoring in Southeast Asia
Series title	Global Ecology and Conservation
DOI	10.1016/j.gecco.2015.08.002
Volume	4
Year Published	2015
Language	English
Publisher	Elsevier
Contributing office(s)	Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Contaminant Biology Program
Description	9 p.
First page	414
Last page	422
Other Geospatial	Southeast Asia
Online Only (Y/N)	N
Additional Online Files (Y/N)	N
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page