On Wednesday we received a telephone call from the Phetchaburi police station asking for us to help a Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) that a concerned local had reported. A pangolin had been found on the side of a busy highway, far from any place that he would have lived in the wild. The WFFT Wildlife Rescue Team headed out to collect the pangolin and brought him back to the WFFT Wildlife Hospital for a health check.

The Sunda pangolin is currently listed as Critically Endangered (CR) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Pangolins are one of the most traded mammals on earth and all 8 species are listed in CITES Appendix I (Convention on Illegal Trade in Endangered Species), the highest level of protection afforded by the treaty, and local laws, however trade is still rampant due to widespread corruption in the source, transit nations and the biggest consumer nation, China. The species historically occurred throughout Asia, but has since been lost from much of the lowland areas due to human agricultural expansion and hunting. This species has been exploited across its geographic range historically. The primary threat is hunting and poaching for international trade, both targeted and untargeted, and which is largely driven by export trade to China, involving live animals, their meat and scales.