PANGOLINS or scaly anteaters are mammals of the order Pholidota. Pangolins have large, protective keratin scales covering their skin; they are the only known mammals with this feature. They live in hollow trees or burrows.

Pangolins are nocturnal, and their diet consists of mainly ants and termites, which they capture using their long tongues.

Pangolins are threatened by poaching and heavy deforestation of their natural habitats, and are the most trafficked mammals in the world. The critically endangered pangolin is hunted, traded and killed for its scales and meat.

Pangolin meat is regarded as highly nutritious, while its scales were used in traditional Chinese medicine purportedly to help cure rheumatism, carbuncles and mastitis — as well as for detoxification.

The price of pangolin scales was about 340 yuan (US$50) a kilogram in Africa while they could be sold for about 5,600 yuan a kilogram in the black market in Guangdong, according to media reports.

(SD-Agencies)