(Originally posted long ago on ‘World Pangolin Day’.  I feel like people need to remember they exist considering how much poachers love them.  Really hope they can be saved.)

I find these animals fascinating.  Never knew about them until my son started watching ‘The Wild Kratts’ when he was around 4.  I mean, I knew there were armored anteaters out there, but I didn’t know much more than that.  So, I had to make a post about the pangolin even if it’s a day late.  I mean, they’re on my list of animals to post about anyway.  I promise the orangutans will be here in 2 weeks.

Pangolins are the most illegally trafficked animal in the world.  For example, in 2019 it was found that 1,000,000 pangolins were trafficked over a 10-year period.  That’s one trafficked pangolin every 3 minutes.  That’s insane.

Also, keep in mind that trafficking is the only reason they’re endangered.  They’re not suffering from a plague, losing their habitat, or being taken out by an overpopulation of predators.  Well, that last one is kind of true because humans are the predators.  Some countries believe pangolin meat is a delicacy and that their scale have medicinal properties.  While the USA doesn’t do that, we do have a demand for their skins to use for leather products.  Guess if it has scales, an American will try to make a boot, belt, and/or purse out of it.

Here’s a great site for more information:  SAVE PANGOLINS!

Now for pictures of the 8 species.  4 are found in Africa and 4 are found in Asia.  I couldn’t find population amounts, which worries me.  All pictures found in a Yahoo Image Search.

AFRICAN SPECIES: BLACK-BELLIED PANGOLIN (ALSO CALLED THE LONG-TAILED PANGOLIN)

AFRICAN SPECIES: WHITE-BELLIED PANGOLIN

AFRICAN SPECIES: GIANT GROUND PANGOLIN

AFRICAN SPECIES: TEMMINCK’S GROUND PANGOLIN

ASIAN SPECIES: INDIAN PANGOLIN

ASIAN SPECIES: PHILIPPINE PANGOLIN

ASIAN SPECIES: SUNDA PANGOLIN

ASIAN SPECIES: CHINESE PANGOLIN

There’s all 8.  Now for a cute video: