Indonesian authorities have seized a haul of hundreds of critically endangered pangolins and scales worth 190,000 US dollars, a navy official said on Wednesday. /VCG Photo
The navy officers reportedly detained two suspects and discovered 223 live pangolins, 24 of them already dead and frozen, as well as nine large bags of pangolin scales. /VCG Photo
All eight subspecies of the vulnerable creature have been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). /VCG Photo
The reclusive mammal holds the undesirable title of being the most-poached and illegally trafficked mammal in the world. The Pangolin Specialist Group, backed by the Zoological Society of London, estimated that more than a million pangolins have been stolen from the wild in the last decade. /VCG Photo
Pangolin’s keratin scales are sometimes used in the production of traditional medicine and illegal drugs, and its meat is consumed at a high price in parts of Asia and Africa. /VCG Photo
