It’s a lucrative business with devastating consequences. Pangolins are prized both for their meat (and blood), which is considered a delicacy, and for their scales, which are used in traditional medicines—despite the fact that pangolin scales are made of keratin, the same substance as human fingernails. A single live pangolin can fetch several hundred dollars on the not-so-hidden Asian black market. And these prices have only risen in recent years, fueled by official bans on the legal trade of pangolins and their parts, as well as a lack of concerted efforts to enforce those restrictions. Nguyen and IUCN reports suggest that you needn’t look far to find pangolin meat being offered on restaurant menus and their scales being sold as remedies for everything from ulcers to acne, particularly in China and Vietnam.

While no one knows how many wild pangolins have fallen into this illicit market, the IUCN estimates that the number is likely more than a million over the past decade. While all pangolin species are under threat, two Asian species, the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) have been hardest hit. Although both species are adapted to a wide variety of habitats and their native ranges cover vast swaths of geography, the IUCN estimates that their populations have declined by 80 percent or more over the past several decades, and the organization predicts a similar rate of decline over the next 20 years, unless swift action is taken. At this moment, both species are listed as critically endangered, just one precarious step from extinction.