"Coronavirus: the pangolin would be the guilty animal" , we could read recently in the headlines of the French and international press. Guilty. A very quick sentence. And which, above all, to date, is not supported by any conclusive evidence from the scientific community. However, it will have had merit. That of putting in the spotlight an animal hitherto unknown to the general public. A mammal which, if it is nevertheless the most poached species in the world, has never benefited from the same attention as rhinoceroses, elephants, tigers, lions or giraffes.
Read also: The rhino and the pangolin, sad stars of animal trafficking
On its famous red list of endangered species, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) places all types of pangolins at the “critical danger” or “vulnerable” level. The scale pholidote, of which there are eight different subspecies in the world distributed between southern Asia and Africa, is also perfectly harmless.
The pangolin at the origin of the coronavirus?
Suited for its flesh as for its scales
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