From award-winning wildlife films to hard-hitting investigations into the illegal trade — every pangolin documentary worth watching, and where to find it.
Pangolins are the world's most trafficked wild mammal, yet for most people the first encounter with these remarkable animals comes through a screen. In the past decade, a growing number of filmmakers, broadcasters and conservation organisations have produced documentaries ranging from intimate natural history portraits to investigative exposés of the criminal networks driving pangolins toward extinction. This guide covers every significant pangolin film, the platforms that carry them, and what each one adds to your understanding of the species.
Widely considered the definitive African pangolin documentary, Eye of the Pangolin is the first film to cover all four African species in their natural habitats: the Temminck's ground pangolin, the giant ground pangolin, the tree (white-bellied) pangolin, and the long-tailed pangolin. Filmed across South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria and Cameroon, it combines exceptional close-up behaviour footage with interviews from leading researchers including Dr Darren Pietersen, Olga Essolobo Effa and Emmanuel Amoah. The film won the Wildscreen Panda Award — the nature film equivalent of the Academy Award — and remains the gold standard for anyone wanting to understand African pangolin ecology. Available free on the African Wildlife Foundation YouTube channel.
While not exclusively about pangolins, the "Forests" episode of Netflix's landmark Our Planet series contains one of the most widely seen pangolin sequences in television history. The segment follows a female pangolin and her pup in Central Africa, then pivots to a direct and emotionally powerful address on the scale of pangolin trafficking. Attenborough's commentary naming pangolins as the world's most trafficked mammal introduced the species to an estimated 100 million viewers. The full series is available on Netflix globally. Clip compilations with the pangolin segment are also on the official Netflix YouTube channel.
An investigation-led short documentary that follows rangers, conservationists and informants in Central and West Africa tracking pangolin poachers. Rather than focusing on the animal alone, this film gives time to the humans on both sides: the rangers risking their lives to protect pangolins, and the local hunters caught in poverty-driven exploitation. The film is raw and honest about the economics of the trade at the source end and remains one of the best investigative short films on the subject. Available on the Al Jazeera English YouTube channel.
The landmark Africa series, produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, included stunning close-up footage of a Temminck's ground pangolin in southern Africa — curling behaviour, foraging at termite mounds, and defensive posture when disturbed by a lion. The photography team spent weeks in the field to obtain footage that had rarely been seen on television before. The series is available on BBC iPlayer (UK) and various streaming services depending on region. The pangolin clips regularly circulate on the BBC Earth YouTube channel.
The "Cities" episode of Planet Earth II features a memorable scene of a Sunda pangolin navigating an urban environment in Singapore, crossing roads and climbing fences while foraging — highlighting how pangolins are learning to survive in increasingly human-dominated landscapes. The sequence underscores both the resilience and the vulnerability of the species. Available via BBC iPlayer, streaming services and BBC Earth YouTube clips.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, has produced a series of short investigative films examining pangolin demand in China and Vietnam. The films follow market surveys, interview traditional medicine practitioners, and document confiscated shipments. They are particularly valuable for understanding demand-side drivers — the economic incentives, cultural traditions and price points that sustain the trade. Available on TRAFFIC's YouTube channel and vimeo page. Titles include segments on the role of scales in traditional Chinese medicine, the price premium for live animals versus frozen, and efforts by Chinese authorities to remove pangolin products from official medicine lists.
Channel NewsAsia's investigative documentary series Undercover Asia dedicated an episode to pangolin trafficking networks across Southeast Asia. Journalists used hidden cameras at markets in Vietnam, China and Indonesia to document live pangolin sales, scale trade and consumer attitudes. The film interviews law enforcement officials, conservationists and (anonymously) traders. One of the more recent comprehensive investigations into the Asian end of the trade, providing context that African-focused films do not cover. Available on the CNA YouTube channel.
Germany's public broadcaster DW has produced documentary investigations into pangolin smuggling, focusing on the European transit hubs used in trafficking networks and the role of internet platforms in enabling online trade of pangolin products. The English-language version is available on DW's YouTube documentary channel. Particularly useful for European audiences wanting to understand how their ports and postal systems are implicated in the trade.
For viewers particularly interested in the South African ground pangolin situation, several sources offer dedicated content:
The African Pangolin Working Group (APWG), based in South Africa, maintains a YouTube channel with rehabilitation footage, release videos, educational content and field recordings. Films range from a few minutes to 20+ minutes and cover rescue of snare-injured animals, radio-telemetry tracking, veterinary procedures, and reintroduction protocols. This is the most granular South African content available, though production values are modest compared to BBC or Netflix output. The channel also documents APWG's work with sniffer dogs trained to detect pangolin products at ports.
South Africa's long-running environmental television programme 50/50 on SABC 2 has covered pangolins multiple times over the years, including segments on APWG rescue operations, Tswalu Kalahari's pangolin monitoring programme, and the anti-poaching efforts of North West Province rangers. Episodes are not consistently available online but occasional segments appear on the 50/50 YouTube channel. Worth searching if you want locally produced South African pangolin content.
WWF has produced multiple short films focused on the Sunda and Chinese pangolin in Southeast Asia and China. Films cover demand reduction campaigns, ranger training, habitat monitoring and community conservation programmes. The "Traffic Light" campaign films, produced in partnership with demand-reduction organisations in Vietnam and China, are particularly effective at showing the consumer-facing communication strategies being used. Available on WWF International, WWF-Vietnam and WWF-China YouTube channels.
Wildlife Alliance, which operates in Cambodia, has documented Sunda pangolin confiscations, rehabilitation and release in a series of short films. The content shows the practical realities of wildlife law enforcement in Southeast Asia — market raids, veterinary assessment of seized animals, and the challenges of captive care for a species that is notoriously difficult to keep alive outside its natural habitat.
| Film / Series | Platform | Cost | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eye of the Pangolin (2019) | YouTube (AWF channel) | Free | Global |
| Our Planet — Forests episode | Netflix | Subscription | Global |
| The Pangolin Men (Al Jazeera) | YouTube (AJ English) | Free | Global |
| BBC Africa — pangolin segment | BBC iPlayer / streaming | Free (UK) / varies | UK + international |
| Planet Earth II — Cities | BBC iPlayer / streaming | Free (UK) / varies | UK + international |
| TRAFFIC Scales series | YouTube (TRAFFIC channel) | Free | Global |
| Undercover Asia — Pangolin | YouTube (CNA channel) | Free | Global |
| DW Documentary | YouTube (DW Documentary) | Free | Global |
| APWG rescue films | YouTube (APWG channel) | Free | Global |
| 50/50 SABC segments | YouTube (50/50 channel) | Free | Global |
| WWF pangolin films | YouTube (WWF channels) | Free | Global |
If you are new to pangolins and want to build a solid understanding through film, this sequence works well:
The best pangolin documentaries share certain qualities worth noting when evaluating lesser-known content. Strong films accurately portray pangolin ecology — showing correct foraging behaviour at termite and ant mounds, accurate descriptions of the rolling defence posture, and realistic home range sizes. They cite scientific literature or feature named researchers from credible institutions. They distinguish between African and Asian species rather than treating all pangolins as interchangeable. And they avoid romanticising rehabilitation without showing the extraordinary difficulty of keeping these animals alive in captivity.
Films that sensationalise trafficking without conservation context, or that present pangolin survival as simply a matter of "raising awareness," tend to do the species a disservice. The best films — particularly Eye of the Pangolin — present the situation honestly: pangolins face an existential crisis, but there are specific, effective interventions underway, and the species can recover with sustained pressure on both supply and demand.
Yes. Netflix has featured pangolins in several productions, most notably Our Planet (2019) narrated by David Attenborough, which includes a dedicated segment on pangolin trafficking and conservation in its "Forests" episode. Some markets also have access to standalone pangolin short-form content via Netflix's documentary shorts library.
For a first introduction, Eye of the Pangolin (2019) by Ross Harvey and Mark Sheridan-Johnson is widely recommended. It covers all four African species in their natural habitats and won the Wildscreen Panda Award. It is available free on YouTube via the African Wildlife Foundation channel.
Yes. Several short documentaries produced by African Pangolin Working Group (APWG) partners focus on Temminck's ground pangolins in South Africa, including footage from the Dinokeng and Tswalu rehabilitation programmes. The APWG YouTube channel features rescue and release footage. Additionally, segments in BBC's Africa series (2013) feature South African ground pangolin behaviour.
Yes. Eye of the Pangolin (2019) won the prestigious Wildscreen Panda Award for natural history documentary. Our Planet (which includes a pangolin segment) won a BAFTA and four Emmy Awards in 2019.
Eye of the Pangolin is on YouTube via the African Wildlife Foundation. WildAid, TRAFFIC and the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group have released short films on their YouTube channels. The BBC Earth YouTube channel has pangolin clips from Africa, Planet Earth and Our Planet. NatGeo's YouTube also has short-form pangolin content.
Yes. National Geographic's Explorer series has covered illegal wildlife trade including pangolins. The documentary The Pangolin Men (Al Jazeera, 2016) followed rangers and poachers in Central Africa. TRAFFIC's short film series examines demand in Asia. DW Documentary has produced features on pangolin smuggling routes. Channel NewsAsia's Undercover Asia used hidden cameras to document market sales in Vietnam and China.
Pangolin documentaries have a measurable effect on conservation engagement. Research from demand-reduction campaigns in Vietnam showed that exposure to emotional wildlife documentary content shifted attitudes toward pangolin product consumption among younger urban consumers. Sharing films — particularly Eye of the Pangolin and the TRAFFIC short series — with people in your network is one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact contributions any viewer can make to pangolin conservation.
For more on pangolin conservation, rehabilitation and the science behind protecting these animals, explore the related guides on this site — including our guides to volunteering in South Africa, donating to pangolin conservation, and where to see pangolins in the wild.