Pandemic shines harsh light on Trump's failure to protect pangolins

Wildlife conservation efforts are essential to preventing outbreaks, scientists and advocates sayCoronavirus - live US updatesLive global updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageFor more than five years, wildlife conservationists in the US have been clamoring for the government to provide Endangered Species Act protections to pangolins, a group of imperiled ant-eating mammals that are widely, and often illicitly, trafficked for their scales and meat. The Trump administration, however, has refused to act and that refusal has suddenly taken on grave new implications.Earlier this year, scientists in China identified pangolins, along with bats, as one of the possible animal hosts involved in the transmission of the deadly coronavirus from wildlife to humans. Continue reading...