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The northern Myanmar region has been identified as a potential transit and source place for the illegal trade of pangolins and their scales. In this study, we surveyed the trade links between Kachin State (northern Myanmar) and China and Kachin and India based on interviews, market surveys and online seizure data. From our results we cannot extrapolate that there is a link between Myanmar and India. Based on the results from interviews (17 of 38), we found that around 140–168 pangolins/year are smuggled into China via three different routes from Kachin to China. Scales are the most traded parts of pangolins in this part of Myanmar. Based on the online sources, 30 seizures of pangolin and their products were made on the Kachin–China route during 2010–2016, with all seizures made on the Chinese side of the border. We thus, recommend an increase in law enforcement on the Myanmar side, with focused effort at identifying trade hubs and deterring wholesalers. We further suggest investigating possible trade links between Kachin and other source areas. We recommend, a reclassification of the pangolins’ protection status in China from a Class II to a Class I Key Protected Species, and the prohibition of the use of pangolins’ scales for Traditional Chinese Medicine

Anthropogenic activities have driven many wildlife species towards extinction. Among these species, the geographic distributions of many are poorly documented, which can limit the effectiveness of conservation. The critically endangered Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is experiencing population decline throughout its range due to land-use changes and illegal trade for food and traditional medicine. Using distribution records and maximum entropy modeling, we predicted the potential distribution of the Chinese pangolin across Nepal. Most suitable potential habitats of the Chinese pangolin occurred in forest areas of the mid-hill region in central and eastern Nepal, followed by cultivated land. Almost all potential suitable habitats of the Chinese pangolin occurred outside of protected areas, and most of them were encroached upon by cultivated land, human settlements, and infrastructure developments. The results from this study provide baseline information on the potential suitable habitats of the Chinese pangolin in Nepal, which helps to develop site- and species-specific management plans and to identify priority areas to minimize the current threats to the pangolin and enhance the stewardship of species conservation.

Avian mixed-species flocks (MSFs) are an important example of species interactions threatened by the biodiversity crisis. They are found throughout the world in forested habitats but are generally reduced in size or frequency by human disturbance. In southern China, a unique MSF system is led by several species of closely- related fulvettas (Alcippe morrisonia, A. hueti, and A. davidi). Our objective was to understand how this system is distributed across elevational gradients, especially moving west into the Hengduan Mountains, and how it responds to human disturbance. We sampled leadership and composition of 375 MSFs over 2 yr in and surrounding 5 nature reserves in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, with transects placed in different land use types—protected forest, buffer areas, or agriculture—and ranging from 400 to 3,200 m. We also sampled birds outside of MSFs. We found MSFs led by fulvettas (A. fratercula and A. davidi) in forests across the region up to 2,900 m. Elevation was not a significant influence on MSF size or prevalence in models that also included land use. We found that MSFs were encountered at only one-third of the frequency in agriculture as in forest, and had strongly different composition and leadership. Although MSFs in buffer areas were more similar to those in forest, birds in buffer areas had lower flocking propensity, different flock leaders, and less complex social networks. In particular, buffer transects that were seeded pine had low numbers of fulvetta-led MSFs and forest specialists in MSFs. In the future, it is important to understand which vegetational characteristics allow MSFs, particularly fulvetta-led MSFs, to persist in buffer habitats.