Pangolins are the most trafficked wild mammals on Earth. The principal driver of that trade is demand for their scales in traditional medicine markets across Asia. Every year, tens of thousands of pangolins are killed — their bodies boiled or dried, their scales stripped and sold — to feed a market built on century-old medical claims that modern science has thoroughly disproved. Understanding why this trade exists, what it is actually built on, and how it might be stopped is essential to any serious discussion of pangolin conservation.
Pangolin scales are composed almost entirely of keratin — the same fibrous structural protein that forms human fingernails, toenails, hair, and the hooves of horses. They are also chemically identical to rhinoceros horn. Keratin is a biological polymer with no known pharmacological activity when ingested. There are no active compounds in pangolin scales that any peer-reviewed clinical study has demonstrated to have therapeutic effects in humans.
The scales form as modified skin cells that harden and flatten during development. In a living pangolin, they serve as armour — the animal rolls into a tight ball when threatened, presenting an interlocking wall of scales that protects its soft underbelly from predator attack. There are between 240 and 380 individual scales on an adult pangolin depending on species and age. The scales continue growing throughout the animal's life and are periodically shed at the margins, replaced by new growth from beneath.
No peer-reviewed study has ever demonstrated that consuming pangolin scales produces any therapeutic benefit in humans. The scales are keratin. Eating them is chemically no different from chewing a human fingernail. Every pangolin killed for its scales dies for a medically indefensible reason.
Pangolin scales have appeared in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) texts for at least a thousand years. The Ben Cao Gang Mu — the authoritative sixteenth-century Chinese pharmacopoeia compiled by Li Shizhen — lists pangolin scales under the name chuan shan jia ("mountain-piercing scales") and attributes them with properties including the promotion of lactation in breastfeeding women, the treatment of menstrual irregularities, the reduction of swelling and abscesses, and relief from rheumatic pain.
These attributions were not derived from clinical trials. They reflected the theoretical framework of classical Chinese medicine, in which unusual animal parts — particularly those with distinctive physical properties — were associated with analogous human conditions. The pangolin's ability to burrow through hard soil and tear open termite mounds was interpreted as evidence of penetrating, unblocking power. The scales' hardness made them symbolically associated with resolving blockages in the body's circulation.
None of this reasoning has any basis in pharmacological chemistry. The belief has persisted for centuries not because it has been validated but because it has never been formally tested — and because cultural tradition provides its own momentum independent of evidence.
The primary consumer markets for pangolin scales are China and Vietnam. China accounts for by far the largest share of demand, both for use in formal TCM preparations sold through licensed pharmacies and for use in informal traditional remedies. Vietnam has a significant secondary market, both for domestic consumption and as a transit country for scales moving into China.
A smaller but non-negligible demand also exists in parts of South and Southeast Asia — including India, Myanmar, and the Philippines — where local traditional medicine systems use pangolin products. In sub-Saharan Africa, including parts of South Africa, pangolin scales and body parts are used in sangoma and traditional healer practices, though the scale of this demand is smaller than the Asian market.
| Market | Primary Use | Scale of Demand |
|---|---|---|
| China | TCM pharmacy preparations, informal remedies | Very high (primary) |
| Vietnam | Traditional medicine, transit country | High (secondary) |
| India | Local traditional medicine, bushmeat | Moderate |
| Myanmar/Laos | Transit and local consumption | Moderate |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | Traditional healer use, bushmeat | Lower (but growing) |
Pangolin trafficking involves layered criminal networks operating across multiple countries. At the base of the supply chain, rural hunters in source countries — typically in Africa and Asia — catch pangolins using snares, dogs, or direct capture from burrows. In Africa, commercial poachers have increasingly replaced subsistence hunters as the primary source, using vehicles and teams to systematically clear areas of pangolins over several nights.
Scales are then aggregated by local traders, who sell them to larger regional middlemen. At this stage they typically cross national borders — often concealed in consignments of other goods, packed with fish, frozen food, or manufactured products. Major trafficking hubs include ports in Nigeria, Cameroon, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Seizure records show the largest individual hauls have arrived at Chinese ports, often mislabelled as industrial goods or hidden within containerised cargo.
The scale of the trade is staggering. Between 2010 and 2019, law enforcement globally seized over 380 tonnes of pangolin scales — representing an estimated 760,000 to over one million individual pangolins, assuming roughly 400 grams of scale per animal. These figures represent only a fraction of total trade; trafficking experts estimate that between 10 and 20 percent of actual wildlife contraband is intercepted.
In June 2020, the Chinese government removed pangolin scales from the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia — the national reference document that formally authorises the use of substances in TCM. This was widely reported as a landmark conservation victory. It was significant, but its practical impact has been more limited than many hoped.
Removal from the pharmacopoeia does not prohibit all use of pangolin scales within China's medical system. It removed them from the list of approved ingredients in standardised patent medicines sold in regulated pharmacies — a meaningful restriction. However, TCM practitioners retain considerable latitude in prescribing unlisted substances, and informal markets continue to operate with only partial enforcement.
More significantly, demand reduction — changing the cultural beliefs that underpin the market — is a long-term challenge that regulatory decisions alone cannot accomplish. Surveys conducted in China and Vietnam consistently find that a substantial proportion of consumers, particularly older and wealthier demographics, continue to believe in the efficacy of pangolin scale remedies despite the legal prohibitions and the scientific evidence.
For decades, the dominant narrative around pangolin trafficking focused on Asia. Asian species — particularly the Chinese pangolin, the Sunda pangolin, and the Indian pangolin — were the primary supply source. As Asian populations collapsed under hunting pressure through the 1990s and 2000s, traffickers shifted their sourcing to Africa.
All four African pangolin species are now being targeted at unprecedented levels. Nigeria and Cameroon have emerged as the world's leading pangolin export hubs, with scales from the white-bellied, giant, Temminck's, and black-bellied pangolins being shipped in bulk to East Asian markets. South Africa's own pangolin species — Temminck's ground pangolin — faces increasing pressure from this international trade network.
Conservation organisations and governments have increasingly recognised that supply-side interventions alone — tougher laws, more seizures, stricter border controls — cannot solve the pangolin crisis. As long as a profitable market exists, trafficking networks will adapt. The only sustainable solution is to reduce demand.
Several approaches have shown promise in limited contexts:
The gap between what is legally prohibited and what actually happens in wildlife markets remains vast. Closing that gap requires sustained political will, better-resourced enforcement agencies, meaningful penalties for traffickers at all levels of the supply chain, and long-term demand reduction investment. None of these are quick fixes.
At the individual level, the clearest contribution anyone can make is to refuse to purchase or consume any product that lists pangolin scales — or any animal-derived ingredient from a threatened species — regardless of how it is marketed. The claim that these scales have medical efficacy is false. Every purchase sustains the trade that is driving pangolins towards extinction.
Pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same protein that forms human fingernails, hair, and rhinoceros horn. Keratin has no medically proven therapeutic properties. Consuming pangolin scales is chemically equivalent to chewing on your own fingernails.
Pangolin scales have been listed in traditional Chinese medicine texts for centuries, where they are attributed with properties that supposedly treat conditions from lactation problems to skin disorders and rheumatism. These claims have no support from clinical evidence. The demand persists largely because of cultural tradition and the perceived prestige of rare animal-derived remedies.
Estimates suggest between 100,000 and 200,000 pangolins are poached annually, though the actual figure is difficult to establish precisely because most of the trade is undetected. Between 2016 and 2019 alone, over 206 tonnes of pangolin scales were seized globally, representing hundreds of thousands of individual animals.
Yes. Since 2016, all eight pangolin species have been listed on CITES Appendix I, which prohibits all international commercial trade in pangolins and their parts, including scales. China also removed pangolin scales from its official traditional Chinese medicine pharmacopoeia in 2020, though domestic trade loopholes remain a concern.
Learn more: Indian Pangolin Habitat | Philippine Pangolin of Palawan | All Articles