Because of a food fad in Asia, pangolins
(Manis s.) are facing extinction. Pangolin scales are also in demand by China's bizarre traditional medicine trade. IUCN in its latest "Red List" update has listed all eight species of the world's only scaly mammal as threatened by human consumption. Demand in Asia for pangolin meat is so great, that poachers are now turning to Africa where four species are found for supply. Over a million have been illegally traded in the just the last ten years. In May Chinese officials stopped a truck headed for the border of Guangdong Province. It was loaded with 189 coolers. Stuffed inside were 956 dead pangolins weighing a total of four tons.
Pangolins are the result of 70 million years of evolution and are so unique in the mammal world that they are classified in their own Order:
Pholidota. They are exclusively insectivores, using their sharp claws to dig into termite mounds and a long tongue to eat the insects. Both the Sunda pangolin
(Manis javanica)[photo] and the Chinese pangolin
(Manis pentadactyla) are now Critically Endangered according to IUCN. There is no scientific basis for any medicinal properties of pangolin scales.
