About the Indian Pangolin
The Indian pangolin is the world's most illegally traded mammal — a unique, scale-covered insectivore that is being trafficked to extinction for its scales (used in traditional Chinese medicine) and meat. The pangolin's entire body is covered with overlapping keratin scales that make it look like a living pine cone. When threatened, it rolls into a tight ball — a defence that works against natural predators but makes it tragically easy for poachers to collect.
Indian pangolins are shy, largely nocturnal, and rarely seen even by experienced wildlife researchers. They feed exclusively on ants and termites, using their enormously long sticky tongue (longer than their body) to extract insects from tunnels. A single pangolin can eat 70 million insects per year, making it one of the most important pest-control animals in India's forests. The illegal trade in pangolin scales — worth more by weight than rhino horn — has decimated populations across Asia.