Surabaya
Shenzhen
Hong Kong
CHINA
INDONESIA
MALAYSIA
VIETNAM
THAILAND
LAOS
MYANMAR
INDIA
PHILIPPINES
NEPAL
PAKISTAN
TAIWAN
ARCTIC
OCEAN
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ASI A
Indian
pangolin
Chinese
pangolin
Sunda
pangolin
Philippine
pangolin
CLARE TRAINOR, TAYLOR MAGGIACOMO,
AND KAYA BERNE, NGM STAFF. SOURCES: DAN
CHALLENDER, IUCN SSC PANGOLIN SPECIALIST
GROUP; ENVIRONMENTAL INVESTIGATION
AGENCY; IUCN RED LIST; SARAH HEINRICH,
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE; SCOTT TRAGESER,
CREATIVE CONSERVATION ALLIANCE; KATIE
SCHULER, CORAL & OAK STUDIOS
Major trade flow
China’s questionable sources
Pharmaceutical companies in China
have been allowed to obtain some 29 tons
of pangolin scales each year. Companies
reportedly use scales from the same
decades-old stockpiles, but the origins
of the scales aren’t carefully tracked.
Philippine pangolin
Manis culionensis
This arboreal pangolin is
endemic to Palawan and nearby
Philippine islands. Hunters
sometimes use dogs to track
these and other pangolins.
Sunda pangolin
Manis javanica
This ground and tree species
is believed to be the most traf-
ficked pangolin today. Scales
help protect pangolins from
bites when they feed on ants.
Chinese pangolin
Manis pentadactyla
The only pangolin that
hibernates in winter has been
poached so heavily that by
the mid-1990s it had come
close to extinction in China.
Indian pangolin
Manis crassicaudata
The largest Asian species
ranges as far west as Pakistan.
As with other pangolins,
babies less than six months old
ride on their mothers’ backs.
Trying to stop a deadly market
Law enforcement agencies made 1,500
seizures representing an estimated
700,000 pangolins between 2000
and 2018. Most of the trade,
however, goes undetected
and unreported.
ASIAN SPECIES
Pangolin seizures Conservation status Pangolin traffickers
Vulnerable
Critically
endangered
Estimated number of
confiscated pangolins
based on reported seiz-
ures of bodies, parts,
and scales, 2000-2018
Endangered
Main countries
involved in trafficking
Record breakers: In 2019
Singapore seized a shipment
of 14.2 tons of scales—repre-
senting an estimated 36,000
pangolins—from Nigeria
bound for Vietnam. In 2017
China intercepted a shipment
from Africa of 13 tons of scales
(about 30,000 pangolins).
More than 20,000
500–1,499
Fewer than 500
1,500–4,999
5,000–20,000
Illegal pangolin products
are shipped from Asia to
the United States.