Most Poached Rare Animal: Pangolin!

The Pangolin or Scaly Anteater is a rare and elusive African animal. It uses its powerful front claws and long sticky tongue to catch its prey - ants. The scales are made from keratin- hardened hair, and protect the creature from predators.
The pangolin is one of the rarest creatures to see in the bush yet somehow it is poached 82 times more than rhinos and a whopping 1,000 times more than tigers!
A shocking 100,000 pangolins are poached every year. As a result, all eight species of pangolin are endangered, with the IUCN recently upgrading two Asian species to critically endangered. Despite this, their illegal trade is booming. In one particularly disheartening case, 42 pangolins were rescued from poachers in Vietnam and handed over to forest rangers, but instead of returning them to their natural habitat, they were sold to restaurants for over $11,000. While the money has been confiscated, the rangers were never convicted for their crimes—as is often the case in the illegal pangolin trade.
Their expensive meat (a kilogram of which can cost up to $250) is a delicacy and a status symbol in China and Vietnam, with fetus soup sold as an elixir for anything from men worried about their virility to new mothers wanting to breastfeed. Their scales are also heavily sought-after in traditional medicine, with unsubstantiated claims of curing everything from acne to cancer, despite the fact that they are made primarily of keratin—which is the same, chemically-identical protein found in our fingernails, rhino horns and bird talons.
The belief in parts of China that the pangolin has medicinal value is supported by absolutely no scientific evidence. It originates in an ancient belief about the pangolins ability to dig. Their name in Chinese literally means ‘animal that can dig through a hill’, which doesn’t seem like an exaggeration since some can reportedly dig through concrete. However, the ancient myth goes further and suggests that eating this creature should therefore allow people to absorb the strength of the pangolin in breaking through various biological barriers. Needless to say, much like rhino horns and tiger parts, there is no scientific evidence that pangolins have any medicinal benefits.
The pangolin is so unique that taxonomists have given them their own order: Pholidota, of which four species are found in Africa and four in Asia. They are nocturnal, solitary and shy. They have a tongue longer than their body. Some species are able to hang from their tail, while others can dig burrows large enough for you to stand in. The distinctive pangolin also has an endearing way in which they raise their pangopups. Yep, they are really called pangopups. Pangopups are carried on their mother’s tail for the first three months of life. After they get off her tail and start walking, they stick around for a further two years until they reach adulthood, at which point they are old enough to start their own solitary lives
Filmed in the Sabi Sand Nature Reserve, Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa

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