“The Most Trafficked Animal You’ve Never Heard Of”

John D. Sutter worries that the pangolin, or “scaly anteater,” could die out due to lack of publicity:

The pangolin possesses none of the cachet of better-known animals that are hot on the international black market. It lacks the tiger’s grace, the rhino’s brute strength. If the pangolin went to high school, it would be the drama geek – elusive, nocturnal, rarely appreciated and barely understood. When it’s frightened, it actually curls up into a roly-poly ball. The pangolin could go extinct before most people realize it exists. Or, more to the point: It could go extinct because of that.

Pangolins — two species of which are endangered and all of which are protected by international treaty — are trafficked by the thousands for their scales, which are boiled off their bodies for use in traditional medicine; for their meat, which is a high-end delicacy here and in China; and for their blood, which is seen as a healing tonic. …

The numbers are astounding. By the most conservative estimates, 10,000 pangolins are trafficked illegally each year. If you assume only 10 percent to 20 percent of the actual trade is reported by the news media, the true number trafficked over a two-year period was 116,990 to 233,980, according to Annamiticus, an advocacy group. No one knows how many pangolins are left in the wild. But scientists and activists say the number is shrinking fast. Some experts say the pangolin is likely the most trafficked mammal in the world. … Yet, few seem to care. International environmental groups and governments have been slow to fund pangolin research and rescue. You don’t see them on the cover of National Geographic. You rarely find them in marketing campaigns.

But that could change; following the publication of Sutter’s story, at least 13 petitions sprung up on Change.org asking Disney and Pixar to feature pangolins in their movies. Previous Dish on the curious creature here.