page_title: Pangolin trade
section_title: Scales
hierarchical_section_title: Pangolin trade / Asia / Scales
caption_attribution_description: English: Illicit Endangered Wildlife Trade in Möng La, Shan, Myanmar
context_page_description: The pangolin trade is the illegal poaching, trafficking, and sale of pangolins, parts of pangolins, or pangolin-derived products on the black market. Pangolins are believed to be the world's most trafficked mammal, accounting for as much as 20% of all illegal wildlife trade. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than a million pangolins were poached in the decade prior to 2014.
  The animals are trafficked mainly for their scales, which are believed to treat a variety of health conditions in traditional Chinese medicine, and as a luxury food in Vietnam and China. In Africa, pangolins are sold as a form of bushmeat, for ritual or spiritual purposes, and use in traditional African medicine. Many times the animal is trafficked just for clothing and fashion.
  The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which regulates the international wildlife trade, has placed restrictions on the pangolin market since 1975, and in 2016, it added all eight pangolin species to its Appendix I, reserved for the strictest prohibitions on animals threatened with extinction.
context_section_description: Pangolins have a thick layer of protective scales made from keratin, the same material that makes up human fingernails and rhinoceros horns. Scales account for about 20% of the animal's weight. When threatened, pangolins curl into a ball, using the scales as armor to defend against predators.
  The scales can cost more than $3,000/kg on the black market. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the scales are used for a variety of purposes. The pangolins are boiled to remove the scales, which are dried and roasted, then sold based on claims that they can stimulate lactation, help to drain pus, and relieve skin diseases or palsy. As of 2015, pangolin scales were covered under some health insurance plans in Vietnam.
caption: Illicit wildlife trade in Myanmar
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