Updated with new information on 6 August, 2012.
The year 2011 saw a minimum of 58 pangolin seizures reported by media and wildlife trade-monitoring networks, TRAFFIC and Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN).
The incidents spanned across more than fourteen different countries in East and Southeast Asia, France, and numerous African nations.
A wild goose chase on the high seas off Sabah, Malaysia and a high speed car chase in Vietnam over the past week have yielded over 1,000 pangolins destined to be consumed as a delicacy or crushed into ‘medicine’.
The endangered Sunda pangolin is the only species of scaly anteater found in Cambodia, but alarming declines in their numbers have conservationists, scientists, and wildlife managers questioning just how much longer this nation will have any to call her own.
Life is hard for pangolins, as they face daily threats of being poached, losing habitat, or being brutally murdered by angry mobs of humans.
Media reports claim Thai authorities have thwarted an attempt to smuggle 50 pangolins into China via Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), a major transit route used by wildlife traffickers.
One of the biggest challenges in pangolin conservation is that we know very little about these secretive, elusive creatures.
Just after Customs officials confirmed that the China-Nepal border is serving as a significant smuggling route for the illegal wildlife trade, new media reports indicate a massive upswing in pangolin poaching in areas of Nepal near the porous Chinese border.
Three Zimbabwean men have been sentenced after they were found in illegal possession of a pangolin, which they apparently intended to use in superstitious rites to improve their mining business.
In a press conference held last Friday, the Lhasa Customs Office confirmed that porous Tibetan borders are being used to smuggle illicit drugs, pangolin scales, and other highly sought after wildlife products into China from other countries. Read more
Last week, the Assam Rifles—an Indian paramilitary force—apprehended two young men and seized from them fourteen kilograms of pangolin scales, two mobile phones, and a bank card, according to online news source, E-Pao. Read more