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PITY THE pangolin. With its hard covering and ability to roll into a small ball when threatened, the scaly anteater, as it is also known, has an advantage over most predators. But it cannot repel humans.
穿山甲值得同情。穿山甲擁有堅硬的外殼，並且在遇到威脅時可以滾縮成一團，能夠在面對大多數肉食動物時佔盡優勢。但它無力對抗人類。
Pangolins, which are endangered, are the most trafficked wild mammals in the world. Most end up in China. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine claim the scales have properties that can help with breastfeeding and poor circulation.
瀕臨滅絕的穿山甲是全世界被售賣最多的野生哺乳動物，而絕大多數都死於中國。中醫們則表示，穿山甲的鱗片可以刺激母乳分泌和血液循環。
Some Chinese consider the flesh a delicacy. Live specimens occasionally appear in China’s wildlife markets. Scientists speculate that a pangolin could have spread the covid-19 virus to humans. This idea has thrust the animals into the global limelight.
另一部分中國人則認為穿山甲肉質鮮美，而活的穿山甲也偶爾會出沒於國內野生動物市場上。科學家曾推測，是穿山甲將新冠肺炎再次傳播給了人類，這個觀點將穿山甲再次推到全世界的矚目之下。
The attention is badly needed. Pangolins are found in the wild in several Asian countries, including China. But China’s demand, particularly for scales, has taken a heavy toll on those populations. So the smuggled animals are now mainly from Africa.
關心穿山甲是非常有必要的。儘管野生穿山甲遍布於中國在內的幾個亞洲國家之間，但中國對穿山甲的消費需求，尤其是對鱗片的需求，則對野生穿山甲的存貨數量造成了沉重打擊。於是現在走私的穿山甲主要來自於非洲。
The UN estimates that the equivalent of 142,000 whole pangolins was seized by various countries in 2018, more than ten times more than in 2014 (when police in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou found the haul pictured here).
根據聯合國估算，在2018年各國繳獲的走私穿山甲有14.2萬隻，是2014年中國南方城市廣州警方當時所繳獲的數量的10倍以上。
Eating pangolins is illegal in China, but putting their scales into medical concoctions is not. More than 700 hospitals in China are allowed to prescribe pangolin scales, which they can buy from the government.
儘管在中國食用穿山甲是違法的，但將穿山甲的鱗片混入藥物卻並不違法。超過700家中國醫院都被允許開藥使用從官方手中採購的穿山甲鱗片。
This use provides cover for illegal trading. So too does the government’s approval of pangolin farms. These are an unlikely source for many scales—pangolins are very hard to breed in captivity—but they can help with pangolin-laundering.
這種穿山甲的應用則為非法交易提供了掩護，官方批准的穿山甲養殖場也是如此。儘管養殖場難以提供那麼多鱗片的來源——因為圈養的穿山甲繁殖能力較弱——但這些地方可以幫助走私犯洗白穿山甲（把走私的變為合法的）。
Campaigners see encouraging signs. On World Pangolin Day in February, the Communist Party’s main mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, used social media to appeal for pangolin love and to remind people that the scales are no more useful as medicine than human fingernails.
相關活動人士看到了值得鼓舞的跡象。就在今年2月的世界穿山甲日，我黨機關報《人民日報》在社交媒體上呼籲人們關愛穿山甲，並提醒表示穿山甲鱗片的藥用價值不比人類的手指甲強多少。
That month the government temporarily banned wildlife trading and closed wildlife farms. China’s parliament says it will hold its covid-delayed annual session next month. It may decide to make these measures permanent.
就在當月，有關部門也暫時禁止了野生動物貿易，並暫時關停了野生動物養殖場。全國人大方面則表示，在下個月召開的因新冠肺炎而推遲的全國人大，可能會決定將該禁令永久實施。
【拓展理解】
wildlife trading
現代社會，隨著人們從自然棲息地捕獲野生動物並通過陸、海和空運將死的或活的野生動物運輸和交易到世界的不同地方，這樣的威脅已擴大到全球範圍。能影響一個國家從野生動物傳播人畜共患疾病的風險以及應對後果的能力的因素有很多。中國作為活哺乳動物的最大出口國，僅在2011年至2016年之間，交易數是98,979隻，佔該國際條約所列全球貿易總額的58.7%。
但是，這不只是數字，一種新的致命疾病，如冠狀病毒可以從一種動物身上出現，也可以隱藏在遍布世界各地的那些像武漢野生動物市場中。這種情況持續存在的可能性非常大，是一種真正的威脅。與其簡單地將野生動物視為「疾病袋」、試圖消除病原體或選擇性地獵殺藏有病原體的野生動物，嘗試著減少野生動物與人之間的接觸被證明可能是降低全球人類健康風險最實用、最低成本的方法。
But conservationists worry that exceptions for medicine will still be made. In October 2018 China lifted a 25-year ban on the medicinal use of tiger bone and rhino horn. What hope, then, for pangolins?
環保人士則擔憂藥用野生動物仍是法外之地。就在2018年10月，有關部門解除了對藥用虎骨和犀牛角長達25年的禁令。那麼穿山甲還有救嗎？