The world's most trafficked mammal is a shy, scaly roller

Nature · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Imagine an animal that rolls into a ball to hide its belly, using scales made of the same keratin as your fingernails. The Sunda pangolin is a master of defense and a specialist in insect hunting, yet it faces a precarious future as one of the most poached mammals on Earth.

The Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) is an arboreal mammal native to Southeast Asia, ranging from Myanmar and Thailand to the islands of Borneo and Java. Unlike its Chinese cousins, it features fewer scale rows on its back, a longer tail, and shorter forelimb claws. It is highly adapted for life in trees, using its prehensile tail to cling to branches while searching for ants—its primary food source. To reach these nests, it uses powerful front claws to tear into mounds before slurping up insects with an enormously long, sticky tongue. Evolution has equipped the Sunda pangolin with a unique sensory profile: it possesses poor eyesight but a highly developed sense of smell, supported by enlarged olfactory bulbs. Because it lacks teeth, its anatomy is specialized for olfaction and lingual collection rather than mastication.

While their thick keratin scales provide protection against predators like leopards, this same defense mechanism creates a vulnerability; when threatened, they roll into a ball, making them easy for humans to grab and transport. Despite being the most widely distributed pangolin species in Asia, the Sunda pangolin is now critically endangered. While there are no reliable population estimates due to their solitary and nocturnal nature, hunter surveys indicate significant declines. They are currently targeted by wildlife traffickers for their meat and scales—the latter of which are used in traditional Chinese medicine despite a lack of evidence regarding their efficacy. In 2016, the international commercial trade of all eight pangolin species was officially banned under CITES.

The Sunda pangolin is characterized by its brown scales, though some individuals exhibit white scales along their tails for unknown reasons. They are primarily nocturnal and spend their days sleeping in burrows or tree hollows. Females typically give birth to a single pup at a time, with needle-like nipples that do not visibly change during nursing.

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