Do you know what a pangolin is? And no, I did not butcher the spelling of “penguin.” I meant pangolin, as in this scaly pokemon-like animal.
If you do know what a pangolin is, congratulations! You’re one of the few, unfortunately. This is unfortunate because pangolins are the most poached animal in the world. Found in Asia and Africa, pangolins are prized for their scales that are ground into medicine and their meat. Consuming pangolin meat is considered a status symbol because it can cost upwards of three hundred dollars for a 4-10 pound pangolin. Pangolin babies are eaten as aphrodisiacs.
In order to raise awareness for pangolins, my group made mini flyers. To catch people’s attention, we decided to cut out sandshrew, a pokemon, and attach a few facts about them on the backside. The QR code is a link to a website we created with research, our essays, and more facts about pangolins. (Link at the bottom!) We left them in places that people would see, such as in the library and in dorm rooms. In fact, while I was cutting out the sandshrews in the library, a girl who was stapling her papers asked me, “Why do you have so many pokemons printed out?” So I offered her one of them, and told her about pangolins.
I left one of the pokemon cutouts on a chair in the library, and sat a few feet away and watched. Sure enough, someone sat down and noticed it. I didn’t take a video for privacy reasons, but she laughed and picked it up. When she flipped it over, her eyes scanned the facts, and then she put it back where she found it. Though she didn’t use the qr code, we’re hoping that leaving these around campus will be entertaining enough that perhaps one person will say to the other, “Have you seen the pokemon around school?” and create a conversation. The more people who know about pangolins, the better.
The snapchat story reactions were pretty interesting. We got a few explicit (but supportive!) snapchat responses, but someone also drew a picture of a pangolin! I felt giddy with excitement because people were actually paying attention!! Our efforts were being noticed!
At first, my group just chose pangolins because it seemed a simple enough topic. Pangolins are an innocuous subject to write about, and really all we needed to say was “Pangolins are endangered,” or so we thought. Still, the more I researched, the more I started to care. I found myself telling my friends about pangolins while I wrote the essay. I was shocked that so few people knew about them, and they often assumed that I meant penguins. It goes to show that awareness really does matter, as cheesy as it sounds. My hope is that the the more people who know, the more willing they will discuss it with others. Pangolins are eaten predominantly by Asians, and Asian culture dictates that you cannot contradict your elders. Still, it is the younger educated people who must get their elders to understand that there is no medicinal value in using pangolin scales,and there are plenty of other less harmful status symbols to indulge in. There needs to be a societal shift in which people respect endangered species enough to help the population regrow, instead of considering it a commodity that becomes that much more desirable with decreasing accessibility.
Some of the photos were too large to fit in this blog post, so I have provided a link to the google doc with the images.
Link to the QR code website: