Pangolins are among the world’s most harmless and strangest mammals. They are also among its most trafficked animals, being driven inexorably ever closer to exctinction by unscrupulous poachers and wildlife trafficking syndicates. It seems the outrages against these shy and reclusive mammals never end. A case in point: Some 4,000…

A man and a woman at a parking lot in the town of Donggongon, in Sabah. That seems innocuous enough. Except the pair were there to sell a live pangolin, which is illegal. “They were trying to sell the pangolin to a ‘customer’ at the parking lot, where the transaction…

Some people see no difference between consuming chicken meat or the meat of protected animals like pangolins. Others positively seek the gastronomic thrill, as they see it, of consuming the meat of rare and “exotic” animals. One can make the argument, as many people have duly done, that ethically speaking…

Critically endangered pangolins now have a new champion in China and Vietnam, the two countries where “the world’s most trafficked mammals” are sought most for their scales and meat. That champion is movie superstar and martial arts master Jackie Chan. In a short video entitled “Kung Fu Pangolin” and recorded…

Alert customs officials, acting on a tip-off at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport, made a sad discovery: a large haul of pangolin scales. Stuffed in 18 gunny sacks were the scales of an estimated 1,400 African pangolins. The haul, which weighed 712kg, would have been worth more than RM9 million ($2 million) on…

If you are an animal and have a day to your name, you should be worried. Very worried. And so it is with pangolins. Those placid and quirky mammals have had the third Saturday in February designated as World Pangolin Day for the sixth straight year. The day serves to raise…

The world’s “most trafficked” mammal continues to be trafficked relentlessly … within Malaysia, out of Malaysia and into Malaysia. No wild pangolin anywhere is safe, it seems, from the clutches of poachers and traffickers. In the latest incident, a haul of more than 670 kilograms of African pangolin was intercepted in Cameroon…

Three down, plenty more to go. In three separate raids in Selangor, Johor and Perak within the space of little over a week, Wildlife and National Parks Department officials nabbed as many gangs of animal traffickers. They also seized two live mouse deer, 468 magpies, and 1,480 weaverbirds. Acting on…