Early Career Researcher 2022
Charles Agbor Emogor
Department of Zoology
School of Biological Sciences
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Charles Agbor Emogor is a Nigerian zoologist and founder of Pangolino, a non-profit mobilising public and institutional support for pangolins, the world’s most trafficked wild mammal.
He is interested in tropical ecology and in understanding animal-landscape interactions as well as the social drivers of species decline. His PhD research seeks to understand the distribution and ecology of the white-bellied pangolin in Nigeria. Specific emphasis is placed on their home range size, habitat selection, activity pattern and diet.
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Charles Agbor Emogor is a Nigerian zoologist and founder of Pangolino, a non-profit mobilising public and institutional support for pangolins, the world’s most trafficked wild mammal.
He is interested in tropical ecology and in understanding animal-landscape interactions as well as the social drivers of species decline. His PhD research seeks to understand the distribution and ecology of the white-bellied pangolin in Nigeria. Specific emphasis is placed on their home range size, habitat selection, activity pattern and diet.
His work is the first of its kind to quantify the number of pangolins involved in the trade. This work has highlighted the enormity of the trade, which we previously underestimated. He transformed his research into a user-friendly
and accessible scale converter to help inform effective policies to curb the illegal wildlife trade.
Abimbola Animashawun, Nigeria Customs Service
What is the research?
Mobilising public and institutional support for pangolin conservation
Charles has transformed his research into useful tools to curb pangolin poaching and trafficking. He works with hunters around
pangolin habitats to better understand the dynamics of pangolin threats.
He engages over 200 students and 1000 adults across six communities in southeast Nigeria who are learning how to contribute to saving pangolins from extinction. Pangolino hosts the world’s only pangolin scale converter, where stakeholders can obtain estimates of the number of pangolins involved in the illegal pangolin trade.
Pangolino hosts the world’s only pangolin scale converter,
where stakeholders can obtain estimates of the number of pangolins involved in the illegal pangolin trade.
Pangolins are a group of unique mammals only found in Africa and Asia (four in each continent). They have overlapping scales, which is uncommon for mammals, and a specialised diet consisting of ants and termites. Hunting for food and traditional medicine seriously threatens pangolin survival.
The CITES convention prohibits international commercial trade of pangolins. However, there is a pervasive Africa-Asia pangolin trafficking to feed Asian demand for pangolin scales used in
traditional medicines.
Nigeria is a hub for this Africa-Asia trafficking. Three pangolin species occur in Nigeria. Their hunting and trade are banned in the country. However, pangolins are still being poached, mandating Charles' research to quantify the scale of the illegal pangolin trade.
He gathered data on the dry mass of pangolin scales for the four African species and the proportion of the different species in confiscations made by the Nigeria Customs Service to build a model.
This was then applied the model to the total recorded mass of Nigeria-linked seizures from 2010-2021. He found that Nigeria-linked seizures involve 190,407 kg of pangolin derivatives (99.9% scales) and would have come from at least 0.8M pangolins.
The researcher is clearly passionate and actively engaged with the local communities and other stakeholders and their use of innovative tools and creative engagement activities such as screenings, posters and t-shirts is to be commended.
The judges
Quick fire Q&A
Charles Emogor
1
What would others be surprised to learn about you?
I ran for eight straight hours in a pangolin suit (~7 kg) covering 55 km to raise awareness of pangolins and gather funds for their conservation.
2
If you could wake up tomorrow with a new skill, what would it be?
Artificial intelligence techniques – particularly machine vision and machine learning.
3
How do you pick yourself up when research does not go to plan?
I don’t feel down when research does not go to plan. Such experiences are a learning opportunity about what not to do next time.
4
What bit of your role gives you the most satisfaction?
Fundraising. It is easy to convince oneself about the importance and urgency of their research, but what does it take to convince others and make them invest in your idea?
5
What did you want to be growing up?
An astronaut. I am fascinated by planetary science and glad to be currently working with moon and cloud cover datasets for a model on wild meat hunter behaviour. I understand this does not make me an astronaut, though!
6
What do you do to relax?
Epsom salt bath and/or listening to Afrobeat.
7
Who or what inspires you?
A very long list of people, including Wangari Maathai, Mamie Till, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Balmford.
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