Each year, thousands of animal and plant species are objects of illegal wildlife trafficking. Many affected mammals — like elephants and rhinos — are well known, but chances are you’ve never heard of the most trafficked mammal of all, the pangolin.
Pangolins are shy, scaled insect eaters that arguably look more like reptiles than mammals. The eight pangolin species that inhabit Asia and Africa are all highly endangered. Their meat is considered a delicacy, and traditional medicine holds that their scales can cure a variety of ailments.
Nearly a million pangolins have been snatched from the wild over the past decade. Their scales and ability to roll into tight balls are ideal defense mechanisms against natural predators, but they’re no match against humans, the most dangerous threat of all.