Mystery deepens over animal source of coronavirus

Mystery deepens over animal source of coronavirus

Pangolins return to South African reserve

Conservationists in South Africa are returning pangolins to KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, more than 30 years after they nearly went extinct there. Pangolins are one of the world’s most trafficked wild animals. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, some scientists suggested that they might be an intermediate source of the virus, but that theory has largely been discounted. For the past ten years, the African Pangolin Working Group has been rehabilitating animals rescued from trafficking. Last year, they introduced the first group of pangolins into a reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. Two of the seven have since died natural deaths, but the other five are “doing well”, says the manager of the reserve, Simon Naylor.

Mongabay | 11 min read