Pangolin is the world’s only scaly and most trafficked animal. They have large, protective keratin scales covering their skin and they live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species. Pangolins are the only words’ mammals with keratin scales covering the whole body. The word pangolin comes from the Malay word 'pengguling' which means 'one who rolls up'. Pangolins roll up into a tight ball with their overlapping armored scales in order to protect them from the predators such as lions, leopards, hyenas and jackals. Why they are the most trafficked mammals in the world? Pangolins are estimated to be the single most poached and trafficked species on the planet because they are threatened by poachers for their meat and scales which are used in Chinese traditional medicine for a variety of ailments including; excessive anxiety and hysterical crying in children, women thought to be possessed by devils and ogres, malarial fever, and deafness. In Africa they hunt the
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Showing posts from October, 2020