There are eight different species of pangolin found across Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Often mistaken for reptiles, pangolins are covered in tough, overlapping scales that resemble plated armor. These mammals are burrowers that eat up to 12,000 ants and termites each day using their long, muscular, sticky tongue.

Pangolins are extremely adaptable – most can run surprisingly fast, are capable swimmers and some species are adept climbers as well. Pangolins are nocturnal and very secretive, making it difficult for scientists to observe and study them in the wild.

Pangolins are hunted for food, for use in medicines and folk remedies and to fuel a rampant, illegal international trade in their scales, skins and meat. With the largest markets in China, there is a high and growing demand for nearly all body parts of the pangolin. In the period between 2011 and 2013, somewhere between 117,000 and 235,000 pangolins are estimated to have been killed, and this number continues to rise. Imagine this level of slaughter occurring every year unabated for the next ten years? What will be left?

Pangolins are unique and truly remarkable creates that need our help to survive. We need to pass laws that will make a real difference in our efforts to save these creatures.