(CNN) Authorities in Singapore have seized one of the largest ever shipments of pangolin scales en route to Vietnam, worth an estimated $38.7 million.

In a statement , customs officials said they inspected a 40-foot container passing through Singapore from Nigeria and labeled as "frozen beef." Inside was over 14 tons of pangolin scales, packed in 230 bags, along with almost 180 kilograms (around 400 pounds) of cut up and carved elephant ivory.

Fourteen tons is around the same weight as two to three African elephants, or around eight Toyota Camrys.

A scale-covered, cat-sized nocturnal mammal that survives on ants and termites, pangolin are among the most trafficked animals in the world. In China and Vietnam, they are eaten as a delicacy and used in traditional medicine, with their keratin rich scales believed to have a host of positive benefits -- including aiding breastfeeding and curing asthma or cancer -- none of which is supported by science.

Pangolin scales seized by customs officials in Singapore this month.

This demand has put multiple pangolin species on the endangered list , with the Chinese Pangolin listed by the International Union for Conservation as "critically endangered," one step above being extinct in the wild.

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