Marianne Moore: The Pangolin

Three to four thousand frozen pangolins lie in a pit before being burnt in Medan, Indonesia. This huge seizure was a joint operation between the Indonesian National Police’s criminal investigation division and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s wildlife crimes unit, from a warehouse in Medan, the largest city on the island of Sumatra, on 23 April. A total of 96 live animals were found including five tonnes of frozen pangolins, 77kg of scales with an estimated street value of $1.8m (£1.2m), plus 24 bear paws: photo by Paul Hilton/WCS via The Guardian, 30 April 2015

Another armored animal -- scale
....lapping scale with spruce-cone regularity until they
form the uninterrupted central
..tail-row! This near artichoke with head and legs and grit-equipped gizzard,
..the night miniature artist engineer is,
........yes, Leonardo da Vinci's replica --
...........impressive animal and toiler of whom we seldom hear.
........Armor seems extra. But for him,
...........the closing ear-ridge --
.............or bare ear lacking even this small
.............eminence and similarly safe

contracting nose and eye apertures
....impenetrably closable, are not; a true ant-eater,
not cockroach eater, who endures
..exhausting solitary trips through unfamiliar ground at night,
..returning before sunrise, stepping in the moonlight,
........on the moonlight peculiarly, that the outside
...........edges of his hands may bear the weight and save the claws
........for digging. Serpentined about
...........the tree, he draws
.............away from danger unpugnaciously,
.............with no sound but a harmless hiss; keeping

the fragile grace of the Thomas-
....of-Leighton Buzzard Westminster Abbey wrought-iron vine, or
rolls himself into a ball that has
..power to defy all effort to unroll it; strongly intailed, neat
..head for core, on neck not breaking off, with curled-in-feet.
........Nevertheless he has sting-proof scales; and nest
...........of rocks closed with earth from inside, which can thus darken.
........Sun and moon and day and night and man and beast
...........each with a splendor
.............which man in all his vileness cannot
...........set aside; each with an excellence!

"Fearfull yet to be feared," the armored
....ant-eater met by the driver-ant does not turn back, but
engulfs what he can, the flattened sword-
..edged leafpoints on the tail and artichoke set leg- and body-plates
..quivering violently when it retaliates
.......and swarms on him. Compact like the furled fringed frill
.........on the hat-brim of Gargallo's hollow iron head of a
.......matador, he will drop and will
...........then walk away
.............unhurt, although if unintruded on,
.............he cautiously works down the tree, helped

by his tail. The giant-pangolin-
....tail, graceful tool, as a prop or hand or broom or ax, tipped like
an elephant's trunk with special skin,
..is not lost on this ant- and stone-swallowing uninjurable
..artichoke which simpletons thought a living fable
.........whom the stones had nourished, whereas ants had done
...........so. Pangolins are not aggressive animals; between
.........dusk and day they have not unchain-like machine-like
.............form and frictionless creep of a thing
.............made graceful by adversities, con-

versities. To explain grace requires
....a curious hand. If that which is at all were not forever,
why would those who graced the spires
..with animals and gathered there to rest, on cold luxurious
..low stone seats -- a monk and monk and monk -- between the thus
.........ingenious roof supports, have slaved to confuse
...........grace with a kindly manner, time in which to pay a debt,
.........the cure for sins, a graceful use
...........of what are yet
..............approved stone mullions branching out across
..............the perpendiculars? A sailboat

was the first machine. Pangolins, made
....for moving quietly also, are models of exactness,
on four legs; on hind feet plantigrade,
..with certain postures of a man. Beneath sun and moon, man slaving
..to make his life more sweet, leaves half the flowers worth having,
........needing to choose wisely how to use his strength;
...........a paper-maker like the wasp; a tractor of foodstuffs,
........like the ant; spidering a length
...........of web from bluffs
.............above a stream; in fighting, mechanicked
.............like the pangolin; capsizing in

disheartenment. Bedizened or stark
....naked, man, the self, the being we call human, writing-
masters to this world, griffons a dark
.."Like does not like like that is abnoxious"; and writes error with four
..r's. Among animals, one has sense of humor.
.........Humor saves a few steps, it saves years. Unignorant,
...........modest and unemotional, and all emotion,
.........he has everlasting vigor,
...........power to grow,
.............though there are few creatures who can make one
.............breathe faster and make one erecter.

Not afraid of anything is he,
....and then goes cowering forth, tread paced to meet an obstacle
at every step. Consistent with the
..formula -- warm blood, no gills, two pairs of hands and a few hairs -- that
..is a mammal; there he sits on his own habitat,
.......serge-clad, strong-shod. The prey of fear, he, always
...........curtailed, extinguished, thwarted by the dusk, work partly done,
.......says to the alternating blaze,
..........."Again the sun!
.............anew each day; and new and new and new,
.............that comes into and steadies my soul."

Marianne Moore (1887-1972): The Pangolin, from The Pangolin and Other Verse (1936)

MT @TheWCS newsroom: Indonesian Nat'l Police Seize Major #Pangolin Shipment, Arrest Smuggler: image via Nat Moss, 27 April 2015

Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) are among the most trafficked mammals in Asia.Sunda pangolin are critically endangered and IUCN reports that wild populations have halved in the past 15 years. They are in high demand both for their meat and for their scales, which are used in traditional medicine — and as love charms. Tens of thousands of Sunda pangolins have been poached from the wild, headed primarily to China where it is considered a luxury food: photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA via the Guardian, 5 February 2015

A Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica), one of two Asian species of pangolin listed as critically endangered on the IUNC red list: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian, 16 March 2015

Pangolin are a bit like a friendly, flightless dragons. Many of them have no problem being around people.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian, 16 March 2015

Poachers across Indonesia sell critically endangered live pangolins to middlemen for $28 (£18.70) to $31 per kilo; the average size of a pangolin is six to seven kg.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Researchers at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) say that over a million pangolins were caught in the last decade, which makes them the most illegally traded mammal in the world.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

The demand for pangolin meat, which is considered a delicacy, and scales, which are used in traditional medicine, particularly in China and Vietnam, is pushing the pangolin to extinction.: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

A pangolin releases a foul smell when scared, like a skunk –- though it is not enough to ward off a pack of poacher’s dogs: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian 10 March 2015

Already this year 125kg of pangolin scales were intercepted by the Indonesian authorities en route to Hong Kong: photo by Paul Hilton for WildAid via the Guardian, 10 March 2015

In 2014, 6.7 tons of African #pangolin scales were confiscated in Asia. In 2013, it was just over 600KG @THTZim: image via United for Wildlife @united4wildlife, 23 April 2015

 
A waitress in Hanoi, Vietnam, shows how pangolin is prepared. Pangolin sells for as much as $350 per kilo: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

"You find pangolins, and I'll give you money." That's what Ruslan, 58, says he was told by a wildlife trader from out of town: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

 Pangolins are traded by the ton, frozen and alive. They're sometimes mixed with frozen fish or snakes as cover.: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Traditional medicine has a long history in Vietnam and China. Pangolin scales are made of the same material as fingernails but are claimed to help with lactation issues and other ailments.: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

This hunting dog in Sumatra, Indonesia, has been trained on the scent of pangolins, which are difficult to find at night: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Pangolin scales are sold in traditional medicine shops like those found in an old quarter of Hanoi: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Pangolin fetus is an unproven aphrodisiac: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Pangolin is easy to find on menus in Hanoi. Some restaurants slit its throat in front of customers.: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

 

A restaurant in Hanoi kept this pangolin floating in rice wine. CNN reporter John Sutter was told it was removed after authorities were called: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Some pangolin hunters say they're just trying to support their families. They use the money to buy milk, not luxury items: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Ropi, a 29-year-old in Sumatra, Indonesia, said he has hunted pangolins to feed his kids; not to get rich: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Lucky is the biggest and friendliest pangolin at Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam. He weighed only 4 pounds when he was seized from the wildlife trade. He now weighs 17 pounds: photo by John D. Sutter for CNN, 2014

Three to four thousand frozen pangolins lie in a pit before being burnt in Medan, Indonesia. This huge seizure was a joint operation between the Indonesian National Police’s criminal investigation division and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s wildlife crimes unit, from a warehouse in Medan, the largest city on the island of Sumatra, on 23 April. A total of 96 live animals were found including five tonnes of frozen pangolins, 77kg of scales with an estimated street value of $1.8m (£1.2m), plus 24 bear paws: photo by Paul Hilton/WCS via The Guardian, 30 April 2015