All eight pangolin species now face high or very-high extinction risk. The animals have no defense against human poachers, yet pangolins remain largely unknown to the public in regions where three species are native—a gap that conservationists say makes protection nearly impossible.
Shy, scaly anteaters hunted for their keratin scales are disappearing from Africa and Asia faster than conservation efforts can catch them. Yet despite their biological distinctiveness—they are the only mammals completely covered in keratin scales—pangolins remain largely unknown to the public in regions where three species are native.
What pangolins are
Pangolins are not related to anteaters or armadillos, despite being sometimes called scaly anteaters. The overlapping scales on their bodies have sharp edges and form a remarkable defense mechanism: when threatened, a pangolin can roll into an armored ball so compact that even lions struggle to find purchase.
The animal has few natural predators in the wild. Another distinctive adaptation is their tongue, which is nearly as long as their body and sticky for capturing ants and termites—their primary food. Pangolins are nocturnal and solitary creatures.
Yet despite these evolutionary innovations, they do not resonate in the public imagination the way elephants, rhinos, or tigers do.
The trafficking crisis
The demand driving the illegal trade centers on the scales themselves. In China and other parts of Asia, there is widespread belief—wholly unproven by science—that pangolin scales cure a range of ailments when processed into traditional medicine. Pangolin meat is also trafficked as a delicacy in some regions.
More than 500,000 pangolins were seized in anti-trafficking operations between 2016 and 2024, according to CITES, the international authority on endangered species trade. The World Wildlife Fund estimates the actual toll is far higher: over a million taken from the wild in the past decade alone, including animals that were never intercepted.
All eight pangolin species—four in Africa and four in Asia—now face high or very-high extinction risk.
Nigeria and conservation efforts
While some reports indicate a trafficking decline since the pandemic, conservationists say this apparent improvement masks a continuing crisis: pangolins are still being poached at alarming rates across parts of Africa.
Nigeria has become one of the global hotspots for this illegal trade. The country is home to three of the four African pangolin species, yet pangolins remain not well known among Nigeria’s 240 million people.
Dr. Mark Ofua, a wildlife veterinarian and West Africa representative for the Wild Africa conservation group, has spent more than a decade working to bridge this gap. He runs an animal rescue center and pangolin orphanage in Lagos, where he began his conservation work by scouring bushmeat markets to buy and rescue pangolins he could save.
His awareness strategy combines education with celebrity endorsement. He has developed wildlife shows for children and recruited entertainers and musicians with millions of social media followers to participate in conservation campaigns—or simply to be photographed with a pangolin.
The strategy emerged from a moment of realization. While transporting rescued pangolins in a cage, Ofua encountered a group of well-dressed young men who pointed at the animals and asked what they were. Ofua joked, “Those are baby dragons.”
The exchange stayed with him. “There is a dark side to that admission,” he said. “If people do not even know what a pangolin looks like, how do you protect them?”
The question cuts to the heart of the conservation challenge: a species that millions of people have never heard of is disappearing from the planet, one scale at a time.