Singapore has carried the largest ever seizure of trafficked pangolin scales after a shipment carrying 12.7 tonnes of the illegal animal parts was intercepted while travelling between Nigeria and Vietnam.

The haul which set the grim record was worth an estimated £29.5 million and labelled as “frozen beef.” Packed in 230 bags, it was found next to almost 180kg of cut up and carved elephant ivory.

Roughly 36,000 pangolins are believed to have been killed for the single shipment in the 40-foot container, said Paul Thomson, an official with the Pangolin Specialist Group, an organisation that belongs to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

“The news of this record-shattering seizure is deeply alarming and underscores the fact that pangolins are facing a crisis,” he told the New York Times.

“If we don’t stop the illegal wildlife trade, pangolins face the risk of going extinct. Pangolins, or scaly anteaters, which are native to Africa and Asia, are the most illegally traded wild mammals in the world.

In the wild, they are known to scoop up ants and termites with their long, sticky tongues, and to curl up into a protective ball when threatened – behaviour which aids human hunters eager to profit from the multi-million dollar trade in the creatures.