20 pangolin cases in 15 years – director

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) handled 20 cases involving pangolins in the past 15 years.

SWD Director, Augustine Tuuga, said at the Maritime Environment Security Workshop 2017 yesterday that the most recent case involved serving pangolins as an exotic dinner to foreign tourists.

“Most of the cases we handle are having to do with pangolins,” he said.

Hence, the proposal to upgrade the status of pangolins as Totally Protected Species in Sabah, he said.

Augustine also said that wildlife perpetrators in Sabah could be divided into two categories — those who do it for subsistence and those who do it commercially.

He said that those who were doing it for commercial gains were usually apprehended with a huge consignment of wildlife.

In one case they handled, Augustine said that they confiscated a container filled with pangolins.