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- [Rachel] Pangolins are a
really unique group of mammals.
They are covered with these
scales that are made of keratin,
which is the same material
as human finger nails.
And its those scales
that are in high demand
and its driving a lot of
illegal trade that we see.
- [Ken] Here at the
National Fish and Wildlife
Forensics Laboratory, we're very much like
a police crime lab, in
that we examine evidence
in a triangular fashion we attempt to link
suspect, victim, and crime lab
together with that evidence.
We assist investigators at the
state, national, and
international level to investigate
violators of wildlife laws.
We're the only such full service
wildlife crime lab in the world.
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We're very much aware that
the pangolins have been killed
for a wide range of reasons.
These little creatures have a
hard time protecting themselves,
there defense is to roll up into a ball.
Which makes them easy for
the poachers to collect.
- [Rachel] Pangolin
scales have been used in
traditional medicines in different parts
of the world for a long time,
but its just now that its on this,
kinda, larger commercial scale.
That's where we see this
species being threatened.
- [Ken] But then we became
aware of this interesting story
that you could grind up a pangolin scale
and exarate chemicals out of
there to make illicit drugs.
- So there's this rumor that
on my news resources that
pangolin scales contained tramadol.
Tramadol is a synthetic analgesic,
so its used to treat pain.
Its not known to be synthesized
in any natural system.
And then there was on top of this,
even some suggestion that
the trade in pangolins
was driven in part by
this demand for tramadol.
Which was then being used for
the manufacture of methamphetamine.
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We weren't really sure to what extent
this kinda rumor was
actually driving the trade,
but it was something we could
actually address with the data that we had
and actually look for it.
- [Ken] We were asked to identify
pangolin scales early on,
simply because they were
being seized as evidence.
- [Rachel] We actually
probed the sample for
tramadol and we did that for 104 scales,
representing 104 different
individuals of all species.
All right so,
what we do
is just go in and
try and find a spot
that minimally invasive,
that people aren't gonna notice too much.
A little end of it here,
and we don't need very much.
So the dart can
obtain profiles from
really small pieces of material.
So the dart is getting the full
chemical profile of that keratin.
It gives us, in a bit, the entire spectrum
of what's in there and we can probe that
chemical profile to look
for tramadol, specifically.
And that's what we did.
- Its telling you the
size and the intensity
of the ions that are
actually in the sample.
- [Rachel] I came to
this lab because I wanted
to do something that I thought
could make a difference.
We're just doing our small part to help
reduce illegal wildlife trade.
We looked at all species
and we didn't find
any evidence for tramadol
within our detection window.
So, we're confident that
we didn't find tramadol.
(laughs) That's what it is, yeah.
- We've worked a lot of
the interesting cases
in which we examined
evidence on rhino horn pills,
rhino horns themselves, sea turtle meat,
or sea turtle leather in,
the glass eels,
wide range of wildlife parts and products.
But I think the pangolin scales offered
us something a little different.
I'm happy to think that
our work is gonna help
stop the killing of these
poor creatures for a myth,
for a story that simply isn't true.
If that's the case, we'll be happy indeed.
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