Now deemed to be the most trafficked animal on earth, pangolins are in catastrophic decline in Asia and parts of Africa. With up to 100,000 pangolins hunted and sold every year, pangolins now account for 20% of all sales on the wildlife black-market. Although they are internationally protected they are increasingly threatened by illegal hunting and poaching for the Chinese medicinal product trade. Suzi Eszterhas takes us behind the scenes at the Taipei Zoo to witness the care of the first successfully hand-raised captive-born pangolin baby named Gung-wu and highlights the Malayan Pangolin conservationist, Thai Van Nguyen with the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Program of Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam in this gallery of images.
